If you own an older private condo, you have been watching this market quietly hoping for signs that the en bloc cycle is back. And if you are a buyer trying to figure out where new supply is coming from over the next few years, what is happening right now in the collective sale market matters more to your planning than you might think.
According to data reported by PropertyNet.SG and corroborated by multiple property media sources, Singapore's collective sale market crossed the S$1 billion mark within just the first four months of 2026, with freehold sites leading the charge. That is a significant pace, even if it is still well below the fever pitch of the 2017 to 2018 supercycle.
The headline deals confirmed so far are substantial. Loyang Valley in Changi was sold to a SingHaiyi-led consortium for S$880 million in April 2026, as reported by tracygoh.sg and The Independent SG. Tan Boon Liat Building along Havelock Road changed hands for S$950 million, making it the single largest en bloc deal recorded in 2026 to date. And in July 2026, Serenity Park in Yio Chu Kang, a freehold site in the OCR, was launched for collective sale at S$505 million, adding further momentum to the pipeline.
Backing up this activity at the macro level, Savills Singapore revised its 2026 investment sales forecast upward to S$55 to S$60 billion, per RE Talk Asia, reflecting broad institutional confidence in Singapore's property investment market. The en bloc segment is clearly a meaningful part of that story.
In my view, what makes this cycle different from 2017 to 2018 is the freehold concentration. Back then, you had a healthy mix of freehold and leasehold sites getting swept up in the excitement. What I'm seeing now is developers being far more deliberate. They are specifically chasing freehold and 999-year leasehold sites because the GLS programme simply cannot give them that. Every GLS site that comes to market is a 99-year leasehold. If a developer wants to launch a freehold project, en bloc is the only route.
Here's the thing most people miss. The Tan Boon Liat deal at S$950 million is not just a big number. It is a signal. That site is commercial and mixed-use in nature, which means the developer avoids the 35% residential ABSD that applies to purely residential en bloc acquisitions. No ABSD clock ticking means no execution panic, better deal economics, and more flexibility. In 25 years I have watched this pattern before. When developers start hunting commercial and mixed-use sites to sidestep ABSD friction, you know there is genuine conviction behind the spending, not just speculative fervour.
What I am also watching closely is the OCR pipeline building up. Loyang Valley and Serenity Park are both outside the central region. Developers are not just chasing trophy CCR addresses. They are betting on mass market demand staying firm, and I think that bet is reasonable given the structural tailwinds from HDB upgraders and the ongoing rental yield story in suburban Singapore.
If you own a unit in an ageing private development, particularly one that is freehold and over 30 years old, now is genuinely a good time to start having conversations with your fellow owners. Developer appetite is real and active right now. The 80% consent threshold requirement under the Land Titles (Strata) Act does not change, but getting to that threshold is far easier when developers are bidding competitively and the potential premiums are meaningful. I have seen owners achieve 20 to 50% above open market values through en bloc. That kind of exit does not come around in every market cycle.
For private condo buyers looking at new launches, understand that what happens in the en bloc market today does not translate into new supply overnight. The typical lag from collective sale completion to new launch is four to six years. The Loyang Valley and Serenity Park deals will likely produce new projects by 2029 to 2031 at the earliest. If you are waiting for that supply to soften prices before you buy, you may be waiting longer than you expect. In the meantime, the high land costs baked into these en bloc deals will flow through into new launch pricing. An S$880 million land cost gets amortised across every unit, and that pushes per-unit PSF higher.
For HDB upgraders, here is the practical implication. The new freehold projects that come out of this en bloc wave will be priced at a premium, typically 10 to 15% higher than comparable 99-year sites. If freehold tenure matters to you and your budget allows, the window to enter before those new launches hit may actually be the resale market right now. On the flip side, if you are comfortable with leasehold, the GLS-derived new launches coming through the next two to three years may offer better entry points than waiting for freehold en bloc redevelopments to complete.
The collective sale market in 2026 is not a repeat of the 2017 frenzy, but it is real, it is building, and it is being driven by structural logic rather than pure speculation. Freehold sites are the prize, commercial and mixed-use deals are gaining traction for ABSD efficiency reasons, and the OCR pipeline is growing. Whether you are an owner considering a collective sale, a buyer trying to read the new supply pipeline, or an investor tracking where developer capital is flowing, this market is telling you something worth listening to. If you want to think through how any of this connects to your specific situation, reach out and let's have a proper conversation.
WhatsApp me at +65 9750 1055 or visit keithtanboonkee.com to find out more.
25 years experience · 1,000+ transactions · 4,379 TOP units managed
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