SG Launch Brief
-- The editorial

22 pieces, written for buyers.

Analysis, guides, and market intelligence. Independent, factual, no promotional language.

01

EC rules tightened in three moves. Here's what changes, which projects it hits, and what to watch.

MND's 8 May 2026 EC changes: 10-year MOP, DPS scrapped, 90% first-timer quota. Which projects are affected, which aren't, and what buyers should watch.

7 min
02

1BR vs 2BR: which actually pays as an investment

Comparing 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom condo investments on stamp duty, realised yield after vacancy, tenant pool depth, and resale liquidity.

8 min
03

Bayshore after the station opened

What the precinct's connectivity, land cost, and supply pipeline mean for the launch case in May 2026.

8 min
04

BTO or resale: what the wait actually costs

A variable-list framework for pricing the BTO versus resale choice on housing during the wait, ballot risk, grants, and resale price exposure.

8 min
05

D11 land prices: what three Newton tenders are saying

Three D11 GLS tenders within a year give a clean read on what developers think Core Central Region land is worth, and where launch PSF has to land.

7 min
06

D15 is repricing. Three reasons get conflated, only one is solid.

D15 has moved on PSF, but TEL connectivity, freehold scarcity, and RCR re-anchoring tell different stories with different evidence.

7 min
07

What a new Far East CCR launch tells you about their playbook

A framework for reading a CCR launch from a primarily OCR-weighted developer using pricing posture, unit mix, and velocity against the comparable set.

8 min
08

Freehold vs leasehold: when the premium is worth it

Where the freehold premium pays back over the hold period, and where it's tenure preference dressed up as financial logic.

7 min
09

The cash flow gap most HDB upgraders miss

The CPF accrued interest refund and ABSD sequencing systematically overstate what HDB upgraders walk away with on completion day.

8 min
10

The HDB upgrader's pre-ballot checklist

The HDB-to-private upgrade is a sequence of dates and rules across IRAS, MAS, HDB, and CPF. Confirm these items before you sign the OTP.

9 min
11

The Lentor cluster: four launches, one OCR pricing question

Four Lentor launches and a record S$1,278 PSF PPR land bid raise the question of whether the cluster set its own band or pulled OCR with it.

7 min
12

How a new Singapore precinct gets priced: the Lentor case study

From a 2021 blank slate to a S$1,278 PSF PPR land record, the Lentor sequence shows how GLS, launch PSF, and resale data set a precinct's working price.

7 min
13

Does Living Near an MRT Actually Push Prices Up?

Properties near MRT stations trade at higher PSF, but the gap reflects land use, density, and stock age as much as the train itself.

7 min
14

The new launch true cost: what the PSF headline misses

The brochure PSF is the start of a much longer cash sequence. Stamp duties, construction-period interest, renovation, maintenance and tax all sit on top.

9 min
15

Why PSF alone won't tell you new launch versus resale

Total cost over a ten-year hold turns on payment timing, lease, defects, sinking fund and exit liquidity. PSF is the headline; the math sits underneath.

8 min
16

OCR vs RCR vs CCR: where the regional split actually matters

URA's regional split partitions the market into demand pools with measurably different yield, vacancy, and foreign-buyer exposure.

7 min
17

Do older ECs really beat private condos after privatisation?

Back-test of the EC outperformance claim: two of the three structural drivers behind it have softened, with foreigner ABSD at 60% the biggest erosion.

7 min
18

How to read a unit mix when you're buying a new launch

A unit mix encodes the developer's view on which buyer pool the project is built for. Read against your own use case to see if it aligns.

8 min
19

Q1 2026 launch supply hits a five-year high. What actually moved.

Six developments launched 1,844 private units in Q1 2026, the largest quarterly wave in roughly five years, with EC sales topping a thousand for the first time in thirteen quarters.

6 min
20

Q1 2026: Prices up, volumes down

Q1 2026 private PPI rose 0.9% q-o-q while developer sales fell 32%, a combination consistent with either a resilient market or a thin one.

7 min
21

What launch absorption rates actually tell you

Launch absorption headlines are arithmetically true but informationally thin: the developer chooses the denominator, and that drives the percentage.

7 min
22

Singapore property as safe haven: where the theory holds and where it cracks

Singapore residential's structural resilience is real, but the safe haven label oversells it once you separate index behaviour from exit behaviour.

7 min