Extended family sold Pinnacle unit for larger Pasir Ris flat

Sep 1, 2019

Tan Ee Lyn


In 2008, educator Anita Kaur and her husband bought a five-room flat in Pinnacle@Duxton for $619,000. They sold it for $980,000 in 2015, making a neat profit of nearly 60 per cent.

Winning the ballot and living in the famous estate was exciting at first, but when the children came along, Ms Kaur and her system administrator husband decided they needed a bigger place as they were also sharing it with her husband's parents and grandmother.

"Living in Pinnacle was exciting at first. Then we started planning for a family and it's not so child-friendly," said 34-year-old Ms Kaur, a mother of two girls, aged six, and three months.

"We wanted more. Libraries, parks, shopping malls, more amenities for kids. We also needed a bigger unit."

After crossing the minimum occupation period of five years at the Pinnacle, the extended family of four generations moved into Sea Horizon, an executive condominium in Pasir Ris, which they secured for $1.3 million.

Their Pinnacle unit with three bedrooms was 105 sq m, while they now have four bedrooms spread over 160 sq m in Pasir Ris.

The Pinnacle unit the couple successfully balloted for was among a second batch of flats the Housing Board released in 2008.

An earlier batch of five-room Pinnacle units sold for between $345,100 and $439,400 at the launch in 2004.

While more expensive than new flats in many other locations, the Pinnacle units did correspondingly better on the resale market.

There were 18 Pinnacle flats that sold for $1 million or more last year and 11 which have sold for $1 million or more this year.

Interest in the Pinnacle was renewed recently after the Government announced that 9,000 new residential apartments would be built on the site of the Keppel Club after its land lease expires at the end of 2021.

Property pundits expect the future Keppel units to draw as much interest as the Pinnacle because of its seafront location and proximity to the central business district.

Tan Ee Lyn