Let’s face it, spaciousness is not a term you would commonly use to describe HDB apartments.
Today we would be lucky if our five-room BTO apartment broke the 110 square meter threshold. Because of the tight space available, our homes may feel too cramped to be comfortable, especially as the family begins to grow.
Once we reach a certain age, it is no longer easy to share our bedrooms and the one shared bathroom.
If you are looking for HDB apartments with more than three bedrooms and two bathrooms, Jumbo Apartments is the place for you, especially if you have a multi-generational family moving in.
What is a jumbo apartment?
It’s essentially an oversized version of your typical HDB apartment. Imagine two HDB apartments with three or even four rooms that together form a unit.
Formerly a common option in a bygone era when there was an oversupply of HDB apartments in the 1990s (imagine that), jumbo apartments are now only available on the resale market for those looking for a lot of space crave.
According to Property Guru, they range from 1,442 square feet to 1,830 square feet and have up to seven bedrooms.
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By comparison, four and five bedroom resale apartments are approximately 968 square feet (90 square meters) and 1,184 square feet (110 square meters), respectively.
The sheer size of the Jumbo Apartments means that you, your parents, three siblings and grandparents can stay comfortably under one roof – and have a large berth around each other.
However, existing units are usually only located in three districts: Woodlands, Yishun and Jurong East. The good news is that you can always buy two 3 bedroom (or smaller) apartments and merge them together if you can’t seem to find the right jumbo apartment in the resale market.
Wait, i can buy two units and make my own jumbo apartment?
This is possible under the HDB conversion scheme, which allows you to take out only one home loan when buying two HDB apartments.
This way you can merge two adjacent units to convert them into your own jumbo apartment. However, before you make an offer for the house next door, here are some things you need to do:
- Contact HDB for an assessment and to ensure that two units can be combined
- Complete the purchase for the two HDB apartments
- Complete the conversion to a single (jumbo) unit through renovation
Are Jumbo Apartments Worth the Price?
A quick scroll through a listing site makes it clear that jumbo apartments aren’t exactly cheap. Just last year, a sprawling jumbo apartment in Ang Mo Kio hit the headlines when it sold for $ 1.03 million.
Depending on where the apartment is located, jumbo apartments can range from $ 740,000 to more than $ 1 million. While this is expensive for an HDB apartment, it gives you more bang for your buck when you factor in the value you get per square foot.
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Let’s compare between a jumbo apartment and a similarly sized apartment to see if the former is worth the price.
Today, a $ 900,000 Woodlands jumbo apartment is on the market with a floor size of 2,067 square feet and costs approximately $ 435 per square foot.
Meanwhile, with a four bedroom apartment and the exact same floor size, you can get back $ 1,780 per square foot, which is easily four times the Woodlands Jumbo apartment.
Despite its cost effectiveness, it is also important to consider how old the jumbo unit is.
Why is the age of a unit important?
If you are dealing with a jumbo apartment, they have likely matured significantly. Ang Mo Kio’s record-breaking jumbo apartment was 40 years old at the time of sale, and nearly half of its 99-year lease was shaved.
This could potentially affect the value of the business if you decide to sell it again due to a small issue called lease forfeiture.
Finally
When it comes to jumbo apartments, bigger is not only better, it is also better value for money. When you consider how a 5-bedroom Alkaff Breeze BTO brings you $ 728,000 for a modest 113-square-foot unit (that’s roughly 1,216 square feet), jumbo apartments are a lot more reasonable by comparison.
You may want to consider this unique type of apartment if you are looking for a comfortable stronghold for your multi-generation brood.
