A Sentosa Cove landed home loses money less often than an apartment. The typical landed seller still lost $390,444.

A Sentosa Cove landed home loses money less often than a Sentosa Cove apartment. 53.7% of resold landed homes were sold below their purchase price, against 66.4% of apartments. The rest of the Sentosa Cove findings are on the Sentosa Cove guide.

The typical landed seller still lost $390,444. The typical apartment seller lost $300,000.

Landed homes lose money less often as a share of sales, but because they cost about four times as much, the typical landed loss is larger in dollars.

What is in this note

• Which loses more often: the share of landed homes and apartments resold since March 2020 that sold below their purchase price, and the median outcome as a percentage and in dollars.
• The winners: the median, middle half and largest gain among the landed homes and apartments that sold above their purchase price.
• The losers: the same measures among those that sold below it.
• Annualised, landed homes move faster: the median annual return for each segment, which allows for landed homes being held for less time.
• Part of the gap is timing: the median outcome for landed homes and apartments bought in the same year.

Which loses more often

Resale pairs since March 2020. A pair is a home matched to its own previous sale, so both figures describe the same property changing hands twice.

	Landed	Apartments
Resale pairs	54	268
Sold below purchase price	53.7%	66.4%
Median outcome	-3.9%	-9.0%
Median outcome in dollars	-$390,444	-$300,000
Median purchase price	$14,150,000	$3,522,100

The percentage columns favour landed homes. The dollar column does not, and the reason is in the last row: the median landed home cost four times the median apartment, so a smaller percentage shortfall is more money.

The winners

	Landed	Apartments
Sold above purchase price	44.4% (24)	33.2% (89)
Median gain	$4,450,000	$373,360
Middle half of gains	$2.57m to $5.78m	$163,000 to $694,000
Largest gain	$11,666,000	$2,800,000
Median gain as a percentage	+30.9%	+13.5%

This is where the two segments differ most. A landed home that made money made a median $4.45 million, which is about twelve times an apartment's $373,360, and it did so on a purchase price only four times larger. In percentage terms the gap is 30.9% against 13.5%.

The largest single landed gain in the period was $11,666,000, on a sale held under two years. The largest apartment gain was $2,800,000. The best percentage return on a landed home was 102.9%, on a different landed home that gained $3,550,000 over fifteen years; the best on an apartment was 99.0%.

The losers

	Landed	Apartments
Sold below purchase price	53.7% (29)	66.4% (178)
Median loss	-$2,659,558	-$715,000
Middle half of losses	-$4.70m to -$2.00m	-$1.63m to -$302,000
Largest loss	-$10,650,000	-$6,169,600
Median loss as a percentage	-19.6%	-18.3%

In total percentage the two look almost identical: a losing landed home sold 19.6% below its purchase price, a losing apartment 18.3%. That similarity is misleading, because landed homes were held for less time.

Annualised, they separate. A losing landed home fell 2.48% a year, a losing apartment 1.56%. So losing landed homes lost value faster than losing apartments, from purchase prices about four times higher. A quarter of losing landed sales were down more than $4.7 million, and the worst was down $10,650,000.

Annualised, landed homes move faster

Total returns are not comparable when holding periods differ, and here they do: landed homes were held a median 10.1 years, apartments 13.7. Compounded annual rates strip that out.

Median annual return	Landed	Apartments
All resales	-0.37%	-0.82%
Those that made money	+3.19%	+1.17%
Those that lost money	-2.48%	-1.56%

Landed homes are ahead overall, and ahead among the winners by about two points a year. They are also behind among the losers by nearly a point.

Part of the gap is timing

We tested whether landed homes did better because they are landed, or because of when their owners bought.

Landed sellers in this window bought later than apartment sellers, around 2013 against 2009 to 2010, and our earlier work found that when a Sentosa buyer bought is one of the two things that most determined the outcome. Later buyers did better in both segments.

Landed homes did far better in 2006 and 2007, but those years rest on one and four landed resales. In the five years where each segment has at least six resales, 2009 to 2013, landed homes did better in four: by 15.7 percentage points of total return in 2009, 3.4 in 2010, 7.7 in 2011 and 2.0 in 2012. In 2013 apartments did better, by 3.7.

Within the same purchase year, landed homes did better in four of the five years with enough sales, by 2.0 to 15.7 percentage points of total return. The pooled gap of 12.7 percentage points on loss rate overstates it, because it is comparing sellers who bought in different markets.

What this tells you

Of the Sentosa Cove landed homes resold since March 2020, 53.7% were sold below their purchase price, against 66.4% of apartments. The median landed outcome was a 3.9% loss and the median apartment outcome a 9.0% loss. Because the median landed home cost about four times as much, the median landed outcome in dollars, $390,444 below purchase price, was a larger loss than the median apartment outcome, $300,000 below.

Landed homes that sold above their purchase price gained a median $4,450,000, against $373,360 for apartments. Landed homes that sold below it lost a median $2,659,558, against $715,000. Measured per year, landed homes gained faster among the winners, 3.19% a year against 1.17%, and lost faster among the losers, 2.48% a year against 1.56%.

A landed home loses money less often than an apartment partly because landed homes were bought later. Timing explains part of the pooled gap, not most of it. In the five purchase years from 2009 to 2013 in which each segment has at least six resales, landed homes did better in four, and apartments did better in 2013.

For an owner, the purchase year says more than the segment. Whether you are ahead or behind depends far more on the year you bought than on whether you own a landed home or an apartment.

For anyone choosing between the two, the difference is in how far the outcomes range on each side. A landed home here has produced bigger wins and bigger losses, and annualised it moves faster in both directions.

A smaller percentage can still be the larger loss. As a percentage, the median landed outcome was 3.9% below purchase price and the median apartment outcome 9.0% below; in dollars, the medians were $390,444 and $300,000. Because landed homes cost about four times as much, the smaller percentage is the larger loss in dollars.

What this does not tell you

• What separates the landed homes that won from the ones that lost. We tested purchase year, holding period and plot size. None separates them, which is not the case for apartments, where the project and the purchase year both do.
• Street-level differences. Only two of the nine landed streets have enough resales to read: Ocean Drive at 15 pairs and Cove Drive at 13, and they are close. The rest run from one to seven pairs. Sandy Island is worth flagging rather than concluding: five resales, all five below purchase price.
• Costs. Every figure is gross of stamp duties, agent fees, legal costs and holding costs. For a foreign buyer since April 2023 the stamp duty alone would change these outcomes materially.
• Anything about the wider island. This is the Sentosa Cove enclave only.

Method and data notes. Sale data to 4 August 2026.

Figures are transacted prices from URA caveat data for Sentosa Cove, excluding collective sales.

Landed homes are transactions on the nine Sentosa Cove residential streets: Ocean Drive, Cove Drive, Paradise Island, Coral Island, Treasure Island, Sandy Island, Cove Grove, Cove Way and Pearl Island. Jalan Sentosa and Sandy Lane are on the mainland despite their names and are excluded. Of the 54 landed pairs, 50 are detached houses and 4 are terrace houses.

Apartments are the non-landed projects used in our earlier Sentosa Cove work.

A resale pair matches a home to its own previous recorded sale. For apartments the match is on the unit record. For landed homes it is on street and house number, because landed transactions carry no unit identifier. The outcome is the second price divided by the first.

Only pairs whose sale falls on or after 1 March 2020 are counted, so these figures describe recent sellers.

Medians are used rather than averages. The middle-half ranges are the 25th to 75th percentiles.

Largest gain and largest loss are the biggest single amounts in dollars. The best and worst percentage returns come from different sales, and are stated separately where they appear.

Sale data to 4 August 2026.

Three resale pairs in this population begin at Marina Collection prices from 2012 that a court has since examined. See the note in our project-level article. Their recorded losses may be larger than the losses those buyers took.