Braddell View Is Trying En Bloc Again. Last Time, the Vote Was Never the Problem

Braddell View is hard to miss. It sits on Braddell Hill on a plot of about 1.14 million square feet, with 918 homes and two commercial units. It is the largest of Singapore's former HUDC estates, the middle-income housing that sat between HDB flats and private condos, and in 2017 it became the last of them to be privatised.

On 19 September, more than 300 residents came to an extraordinary general meeting to vote in a collective sale committee, the first formal step in an en bloc sale. Owners holding about 38 per cent of the estate's share value were present or represented, comfortably above the 30 per cent quorum. Of those who attended, about 94 per cent voted in favour.

The committee told CNA it had been talking to residents for months, well before the new law was announced. Its reasons were practical. The estate is 45 years old. Repair and repainting work that used to cost about $1.1 million could now cost at least $2 million for an estate of this size. And many residents are elderly. "I don't think any one of them would like to actually pay a lump sum or increase their maintenance fee in order to maintain the estate," one committee member said.

The meeting came eleven days after Parliament passed a law changing how much agreement an en bloc sale needs.

For a development 10 years or older, the threshold has been 80 per cent of owners by share value and by area. Under the new law, as we set out when the Bill was debated, it drops to 70 per cent for developments aged 40 to 59, and to 65 per cent for those 60 and older. Younger developments keep today's thresholds.

Braddell View, completed in 1981, falls in the 70 per cent tier.

There is a catch on timing. The law takes effect only after the President assents to it, and the Ministry of Law has not announced a commencement date. The committee is getting organised now, but whether its eventual sale agreement can rely on the 70 per cent threshold depends on when the law comes into force.

The new law is not only a loosening either. It also adds new safeguards for owners who disagree with a sale. Owners who would rather stay should read those as closely as supporters read the new threshold.

This is where Braddell View's story differs from the usual en bloc story.

In 2019, the estate went to tender twice, three months apart, both times at the same asking price of $2.08 billion. The estate did not receive any bids in its public tender. A third attempt in 2021 stopped early: the committee told CNA it could not meet the requirements to form a committee because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The order of events matters. Going to tender at all means the owners had already signed up enough support to launch a sale. The 2019 attempts failed at the developer stage, not the owner stage.

That is why the new threshold, important as it is, does not solve Braddell View's main problem. Lowering the bar from 80 to 70 per cent makes it easier for owners to agree to sell. It does nothing to make a developer want to buy.

From URA caveat records, here is what Braddell View homes have sold for over the past three years:

These are large homes by today's standards. A typical unit is over 1,600 square feet, far bigger than most new condo units, at a price per square foot well below a new launch.

Now set the 2019 asking price against that. $2.08 billion spread across 918 homes works out to about $2.3 million a home, before any adjustment for unit size or the commercial units. That was the figure that drew no bids. Today, the typical home in the estate sells for $1.71 million on the open market.

A sale at around the 2019 figure would still give a typical owner a large premium over what their flat sells for today. That gap is why owners keep trying. Whether a developer will pay it is the question that ended the last two attempts.

No developer explained publicly why it stayed away, so this is our reading of the factors that usually decide deals of this size.

Size. A $2 billion collective sale is one of the largest residential deals a Singapore developer can take on. Few can finance it alone, and joint ventures take time to assemble.

The lease. Braddell View is 99-year leasehold, and its lease has been running since the estate was built. A developer buying an older leasehold site typically has to pay the state to top up the lease to a fresh 99 years before building, on top of the purchase price. On a site this big, that is a large extra cost, and one that grows as the lease runs down.

Selling the result. A plot of 1.14 million square feet means a very large new project. A developer has to believe it can sell all of them, in one location, within the time allowed before extra stamp duty applies. The Government has already given large en bloc sites an extra year on that timeline, which helps a project of this size.

None of those has gone away since 2019, and the lease has run down another seven years. What has changed is the land market. Developers have been paying record prices for suburban land this year. That is the real test the committee is betting on.

Braddell View will not be the only estate testing the new law. On our directory of private non-landed developments, as at 2026:

Developments with a recorded completion year. Developments not yet completed are excluded.

532 developments in total move to a lower threshold, about 17.5 per cent of those we can date. Most are small: 526 developments with about 36,000 homes between them average under 70 homes each.

That makes Braddell View unusual. With 918 homes, it is one of the largest estates in the eased band, which makes it both the most valuable test of the new law and the hardest one to sell. If it succeeds, it will be one of the biggest residential land deals in years. If it fails again, it will show that consent was never the main obstacle for estates of this size.

Forming a committee commits nobody to selling. It is the start of a process with several more steps: appointing advisers, setting a reserve price and the way proceeds are divided, collecting signatures on a collective sale agreement, and then going to tender. Each owner's decision comes at the signing stage.

Some things worth having in mind:

Know your home's open-market value. Over the past three years, homes in the estate sold at a median $1.71 million, and the middle half between $1.59 million and $1.83 million. Your own unit's size, floor and condition will put it somewhere in that range or outside it.

Watch the reserve price. In 2019 it was $2.08 billion and nobody bid. A reserve set too high could fail again. One set lower would mean a smaller premium for each owner but a better chance of a sale.

Think about the replacement home. A large, older unit at around $1,000 per square foot is hard to replace like-for-like. New launches in most of Singapore now sell for well over $2,000 per square foot. Our guide to en bloc sales covers how proceeds and replacement purchases usually work.

Expect the open market to go quiet. In 2018 and 2019, while the last attempts were running, only five Braddell View homes changed hands in our records. Buyers are wary of buying into an estate in the middle of an en bloc. If you need to sell soon for other reasons, that matters.

This is general commentary, not advice on your decision.

Some limits, stated plainly.

We cannot value the site, and we are not trying to. A developer's bid depends on lease top-up costs, what can be built, construction costs and its view of demand years from now. We hold none of that, and the $2.3 million-a-home figure is simple division of the 2019 asking price, not a valuation.

The 2018 to 2019 sample is tiny. Five sales is too few to describe the market then. We mention it because it shows how few owners sell while an en bloc is under way, not as a price trend.

The law is not yet in force. Our threshold table describes the Bill as passed. Until the Ministry of Law announces a commencement date, today's thresholds apply.

Age bands depend on recorded completion years. Some developments in our directory have no recorded year and are left out of the counts.

What we would not hedge on: the new law changes the vote, and Braddell View's past failures were not about the vote. The test this time is whether a developer will pay.

Two kinds of numbers, kept apart.

From the reporting: the EGM date, attendance, the 38 per cent turnout and 30 per cent quorum, the 94 per cent approval, the repair cost estimates, the estate's size and plot area, its HUDC history and 2017 privatisation, the 2019 and 2021 attempts, the $2.08 billion asking price and the absence of bids, the status of the new law, and the committee's comments all come from CNA, linked below.

PropKaki's own data, as of 6 October 2026:

• Braddell View prices are from URA private-sale caveats for the estate: 106 sales from 1 October 2023 to date, and five sales across 2018 and 2019.
• The age-band table counts private non-landed developments in our directory by completion year as at 2026 (3,033 with a recorded year; 268 without one and 66 not yet completed are excluded), with the thresholds under the Bill as passed.
• The $2.3 million a home figure is our simple division of the reported 2019 asking price by the 918 homes.

The news:

• CNA: Braddell View residents take first steps to relaunch en bloc attempt, 29 September 2026.

The data:

• PropKaki analysis of URA private-sale caveats for Braddell View, 2018 to 2019 and October 2023 to October 2026.
• PropKaki directory of private non-landed developments by completion year, with consent thresholds under the en bloc Bill passed on 8 September 2026.

This is commentary by the PropKaki Editorial Desk on reporting by CNA. The EGM results, the estate's history and the committee's comments belong to that reporting; the price and age-band analysis, the framing and the opinions are ours.

It is opinion and general information, not financial, legal or property advice, and not a valuation of Braddell View or a prediction about its sale. Owners considering a collective sale should get independent legal and valuation advice.

Published 6 October 2026.