On 15 January 2010, Housing Development Board (HDB) will put up two Executive Condominium (EC) sites in Sengkang and Yishun for tender. The sites are expected to yield a total of about 900 units.

The sites are at Compassvale Bow (Land Parcel Name: Sengkang E6) and Yishun Avenue 11 (Land Parcel Name: Yishun E3). The estimated numbers of housing units in each project are 520 and 385 respectively.

The tender for the Sengkang site will close on 4 March 2010 and the tender for the Yishun site will close on 11 March 2010.

EC sites have not been available for the past few years. The re-introduction of these sites will meet the demand by first-time buyers.

 “In view of the strong demand for mass market private condominiums in 2009, the market is aware that there will be less of such supply, at least in the first half of 2010. Furthermore, the 13,500 new HDB flats that were also sold in 2009 proved that there is a strong demand for housing by first-time homebuyers. As such, the government has decided to bring back executive condominiums as an additional housing choice for first-timers as well as the sandwich class - young couples and professionals whose monthly household income is less than $10,000 and prefer to live in condominiums but cannot afford one because they have been priced out,” commented Mr Li Hiaw Ho, Executive Director, CBRE Research.

PropNex CEO Mr Mohamed Ismail also pointed out that ECs will be very popular for the sandwich class whose household monthly income is between $8,000 and $10,000. These people were not eligible for Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, but will be able to buy the new ECs when they come onto the market.