S$14M Leedon Residence Deal Nets S$5.2M Profit – Tops Q1 2026 Resale Gains as Loss-Making Deals Decline

The S$14 million transaction at Leedon Residence extends a remarkable run of profitable resales at the freehold luxury development, which has consistently ranked among the most profitable in recent quarters. Based on a nine-year holding period, the annualised profit works out to 5.3 per cent, with the seller’s gross gain amounting to about 59 per cent.

In Q4 2025, a 2,508-square-foot unit changed hands for S$7.8 million, netting the seller S$2.1 million in profit. Prior to that, in Q3 2025, another unit was sold for S$7.5 million with a S$2.5 million gain. In Q1 2025, two of the five most profitable transactions were also from Leedon Residence – a 6,125-square-foot unit that sold for S$16 million led with a profit of S$4 million.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Q1 data also showed that the five biggest money-making transactions all involved either freehold properties or those with a 999-year leasehold tenure in the Core Central Region, reflecting the relatively higher prices such units command on a psf basis.

By percentage, all of the top five profitable transactions – with profits of 130 to 134 per cent – were executive condominiums (ECs) in the suburbs or Outside Central Region, continuing a trend that emerged in Q1 2023. Of the top five winners, three were at the Hundred Palms Residences EC along Yio Chu Kang Road.

Resale transactions at the 99-year leasehold project have been setting record prices since it reached its five-year minimum occupation period in December 2024, with a few reaching historical resale prices on a psf basis. The most profitable EC transaction in Q1 was a 1,970-square-foot unit at The Tampines Trilliant EC, which sold for nearly S$2.9 million (S$1,462 psf) in January – up 140 per cent from the seller’s original price of S$1.2 million (S$609 psf) in May 2012.

Excluding ECs, four of the top five resale gainers by percentage were found in the suburbs, with one in the city fringe. Gross gains ranged from 93 to 98 per cent. Topping the list was a unit at the 99-year leasehold Parc Centros in Punggol, while the 990-square-foot unit was sold for S$1.8 million (S$1,773 psf) in March, nearly double its original price of S$687,250 (S$896 psf) in August 2012.

Figures from Cushman & Wakefield showed that in Q1 2026, properties in Singapore’s prime Core Central Region suffered the largest losses in absolute terms, ranging from S$800,000 to S$1.9 million. The deal that spilt the most red ink was a 2,896-square-foot unit at freehold condo Bishopsgate Residences in Tanglin, where the District 10 unit changed hands for S$8.8 million in February – 17 per cent lower than its original price of S$10.7 million (S$3,682 psf) in March 2021, an annualised loss of 3.8 per cent over a holding period of five years.

In terms of percentage, the seller of an 850-square-foot unit at the 103-year leasehold The Scotts Tower in District 9 chalked up the biggest loss in the quarter. The unit was sold for S$1.8 million (S$2,152 psf) in January, a loss of S$1.3 million from the original purchase price of S$3.2 million (S$3,719 psf) in March 2013 – an annualised loss of 4.2 per cent over nearly 13 years.

Caveat data of landed and non-landed private homes also showed that most of Q1’s loss-making deals – 49 per cent – were prime CCR properties. The RCR accounted for 34 per cent of such deals, and the OCR 16 per cent. Although the CCR saw a larger share of loss-making deals, Wong Xian Yang, Cushman & Wakefield’s research head, noted that the majority of resale transactions in the region – at 84 per cent – were still profitable.

Government data showed that in Q1 2026, private home prices rose 0.9 per cent, picking up from a 0.6 per cent increase in the previous quarter. For the whole of 2025, prices grew 3.3 per cent. Wong expects private residential prices to rise by 2 to 4 per cent in 2026, supported by low borrowing costs, increasing land prices, and resilient buyer confidence amid still-low unemployment rates.

The overall proportion of loss-making deals – which has ranged between 2.6 and 3.9 per cent since Q2 2023 – edged down to 3.7 per cent in Q1, after three consecutive quarters of increases. Wong attributed the low levels to firm home-price growth.

However, he cautioned that against a backdrop of heightened geopolitical uncertainty, market activity is likely to become more selective, with buyers gravitating to market segments or projects that can offer the best value for money. In Q1, the public home price index recorded a 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter dip – the first fall in almost seven years – suggesting that while HDB upgrader demand is still expected to persist, the overall momentum is slowing.