9,865 applications received for 1,718 BTO flats in Dawson

Home-buyers, who have applied for the Build-to-Order (BTO) flats at the popular Dawson estate in Queenstown, are seeing stiff competition.

Applications ended on Monday and the 1718 premium flats are six-times oversubscribed.

SkyVille@Dawson and Skyterrace@Dawson are public flats with premium finishes and designs. The projects comprise studio apartments as well as three-, four- and five-room flats.

9,865 people have applied for 1718 units.

Five-room flats, which cost over half a million Singapore dollars, have proved the most popular. Some 200 units are on offer, but over 2000 applicants are vying for them.

Four-room flats are also in high demand. Some 1,100 flats are on offer, but over 6,000 applications have been received.

One analyst said demand could be fuelled by the “sandwich class” who don’t mind paying a bit more for public housing.

Nicholas Mak, real estate lecturer, Ngee Ann Polytechnic said: “They may wish to buy private properties but because of the escalating prices of entry-level private properties, these people may be looking to buy more premium type of HDB flats.”

Paired units which are being put on offer for the first time, are also proving to be a draw. More than 300 applicants are going head-to-head for some 70 units on offer.

Applicants will know the outcome and their queue number in February 2010.

All is not lost for unsuccessful applicants. HDB said flat buyers can look forward to more BTO projects next year. In fact, it said it is prepared to launch at least one BTO project every month, if there is sustained demand for new flats.

Two other BTO projects were launched along with the Dawson projects in Bukit Panjang and Sembawang. Applications for these two projects also ended on Monday.

As of 2pm on Monday, Montreal Dale in Sembawang had received 1,377 applications for 424 flats, while Segar Grover at Bukit Panjang received 1,341 applications for 528 flats.

About 70 per cent of applicants are first time flat-buyers. The rest have bought subsidised flats in the past.

In total, HDB received close to 13,000 applications for the four BTO projects.

1,300 BTO flats will be put on offer in Choa Chu Kang and Hougang in January 2010.

Source: Channel News Asia, 28 Dec 2009