A five-room flat on the 28th to 30th storey of Block 1B at Pinnacle@Duxton has resold for $1.701 million: about $1,477 per square foot for 1,152 sq ft. EdgeProp reported it as a record for the estate, $71,000 above the $1.63 million a five-room on the 43rd to 45th storey fetched in May, and $51,000 above the asking price.
It did not stand alone for long. HDB's resale records for September show a second five-room at Pinnacle, in Block 1C on the 19th to 21st storey and also 1,152 sq ft, at $1.72 million, or $1,493 psf. Neither is the highest price an HDB flat has fetched. That is still $1.728 million, for a five-room on the 46th to 48th storey at 96A Henderson Road in April.
What the buyers paid for
Not the view, and not the finish. The $1.701 million flat was mid-floor, looked out on a sliver of sea rather than a panorama, and was largely in its original condition. The $1.72 million flat sat lower still. What both had was floor area (1,152 sq ft is large by the standard of five-rooms built today), a layout without wasted corners, and the address: Cantonment Road, a short walk from the CBD and the MRT.
The buyers of the $1.701 million flat were a couple in their 30s and 40s buying their first home, living with parents until now. They viewed once and committed. The seller's side showed buyers renderings of what the unrenovated flat could become. That is the pattern in this corner of the market: buyers price the location, the layout and the floor area, and treat renovation as their own job.
Pinnacle@Duxton has seven 50-storey blocks joined by sky bridges, 1,848 flats, and was completed in 2009. HDB's records date its lease from 2011, so about 84 years remain.
The block's record is being set by a few flats
Roov's HDB records for Pinnacle five-rooms, year by year:
2023: 6 resales, median $1.41 million, highest $1.48 million.
2024: 15 resales, median $1.466 million, highest $1.543 million.
2025: 14 resales, median $1.549 million, highest $1.6 million.
2026 so far: 13 resales, median $1.515 million, highest $1.72 million.
The top has jumped this year while the median has slipped a little. The headline prices are being set by particular flats (the right size, the right layout), not by every flat in the estate. A seller at Pinnacle should price from comparable units, not from the record. Roov's market analysis shows the recent transactions to compare against.
Million-dollar flats are no longer rare
Roov's HDB records count 366 resales at $1 million or more in 2023, 1.9 per cent of all resales. There were 1,035 in 2024 (3.7 per cent) and 1,593 in 2025 (6.4 per cent). In 2026, up to the September registrations, there have already been 1,460: 7.6 per cent of resales, and within weeks of passing last year's total. This year the four-room leads (633 flats), ahead of the five-room (513) and the executive flat (304).
Much of it is about size and age. Larger, older flats in mature towns are where the money has gone; see what Tampines' bigger flats are doing in the resale market and what a $2.18 million jumbo flat buys. Whether HDB and private prices are moving together is a separate question; we looked at it in HDB resale is cooling while private keeps climbing.
What it takes to buy one
At $1.7 million, the upfront cash is the hurdle, not the monthly instalment alone: the down payment on whatever loan you take, buyer's stamp duty on the full price, and cash over valuation if the valuation comes in below the price. Roov's affordability calculator works out the loan your income supports, the stamp duty calculator the duty, and our guides to buying an HDB resale flat and how much you can borrow cover the rest.
The pool of buyers is also widening. Private homeowners buying a resale flat without an HDB loan no longer have to wait out 15 months after selling.
If you are on the other side of the trade, the HDB sale proceeds calculator shows what a sale would leave you in cash and CPF.
Own a flat in a central or mature estate and wondering where it sits against these records? Roov's agent can pull every recent sale in your block and tell you what the market would realistically pay. Get in touch.