From a new record of $1.73 million for a 5-room flat to a 3-room flat hitting $900,000, the affordability of our resale HDB flats has come into question yet again. As part of the argument, we hear claims that most million-dollar (or $1.5 million+) flats are not “normal” flats. Some readers have also suggested that, if we leave out special flats like DBSS, jumbo flats, maisonettes, etc., the real price growth wouldn’t be as high as it seems. For this reason, we decided to take a look at the price growth of HDB flats, both with and without the rare special units: A quick note on what we mean by “normal” flats: Our definition of “normal” is flats that do not mean the following criteria:

• 3Gen and Multigenerational
• Adjoined/Jumbo flats
• DBSS
• Any maisonette
• Flats at Pinnacle@Duxton

In addition, we’ve removed HDB terraced houses from consideration entirely, as these are not typical HDB flats but landed homes. Including them would also distort results  ...