Could we afford the pinnacle of public housing?
While the primary reason for The Wife wanting to move house was to have more space (read: away from me), I began to realise that it was a good opportunity to reset some parameters — a “reincarnation” of sorts.

Notwithstanding the charm of the Far End of the Northwestern Territories, it was quite painful whenever we had to venture out, no matter how convenient the public transport network is. Commuting to work takes us at least 1 hour each direction every day — this means that we collectively spend 4 to 5 hours per day as lifeless souls on Merlion City’s world-leading public transport.

With that in mind, we started to identify areas which are closer to civilisation.

The first place that came to my mind was the iconic 50-storey The Pinnacle@Duxton, which is probably as accessible as it can ever get. While The Wife concurred, she expressed her reservation about the price — “Sure very expensive one.”

Looking at the listed units for sale, the price tags next to them were at least S$900,000, with many of them asking for over S$1 million. And these were just for the 4-room flats. Asking prices for 5-room flats were closer to S$1.2 million.

Discounting the price factor, the 4-room flat options would not have given us any more space than what we already had. The 5–room flats seemed to justify the significant price premium on the surface but upon closer examination, the combination of block, stack and level play an important factor in determining whether a unit in The Pinnacle@Duxton has a dazzling unblocked view of the heart of Merlion City.

We could potentially end up paying a lot of money for a mediocre 5-room flat (in terms of block, stack and level) in The Pinnacle@Duxton and not feeling like we got our money’s worth. The alternative would have been to pay even more money for a stellar unit and be much deeper in debt.

A 5–room flat in The Pinnacle@Duxton would have met most of our criteria, except that the remaining lease tenure is slightly less than 90 years. If money is not an issue, this would without a doubt have been our choice, but I would not say that the value necessarily matches the price.

After some discussion, we concluded that we have not reached the “pinnacle” of public housing yet and hence we would have to go hunting for value elsewhere.
['Money Pit Digger']
['House Hunting', 'Property Search', 'Hdb Flat', 'Singapore']