HDB stopped building big homes 30 years ago. We mapped what's left.
Maisonettes went out of production in 1995. Jumbos were a 90s conversion experiment. HDB terraces were built in the 1960s and never again. Every one that sells today comes from a fixed, shrinking pool — and we mapped the entire pool.
- Only 794 HDB blocks in Singapore still contain confirmed maisonettes, jumbos or terraces — out of roughly 10,000 residential blocks.
- 630 maisonette blocks · 123 jumbo blocks · 41 terrace blocks — and not one has been built since the 90s.
- The heartland of big HDB: Hougang (77 blocks), Tampines (64), Bishan (59), Pasir Ris (51).
- The unicorns: 41 blocks of landed-style HDB terraces at Jalan Bahagia, Jalan Ma'mor and Stirling Road.
HDB Property Information (data.gov.sg) cross-confirmed against resale transactions to 30 Jul 2026 — maisonette/jumbo/terrace tags require an actual transacted sale in that block.
Where the big flats actually are
Four towns hold a third of everything.
| Town | Blocks | Formats | POV note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hougang | 77 | Maisonettes + jumbos | Biggest pool, widest price range |
| Tampines | 64 | Maisonettes + jumbos | East's maisonette capital |
| Bishan | 59 | Maisonettes | The prestige pool — $1M+ prints live here |
| Pasir Ris | 51 | Maisonettes | Late-80s stock, larger floorplates |
| Woodlands | 44 | Maisonettes + jumbos | The value pool — same size, north pricing |
| Yishun | 40 | Maisonettes + jumbos | Jumbo conversions cluster here |
| Jurong West | 39 | Maisonettes | West's main stock |
| Choa Chu Kang | 37 | Maisonettes | Quietest market of the majors |
| Kallang/Whampoa | 35 | Maisonettes + terraces | City-fringe + the Jln Bahagia terraces |
| Bukit Batok | 35 | Maisonettes | Hillside blocks, underrated |
Top 10 of 26 towns by count of blocks holding confirmed big-format flats. Full block-level map available in a consultation.
Two reading notes. First, Bishan is where the trophy market lives — its maisonettes set the million-dollar-HDB headlines because the town pairs the format with central location and top schools. Second, Woodlands and Hougang are where the value lives: the same 1,600–1,800 sqft format, hundreds of thousands cheaper, because the address carries no headline glamour. If you want the space more than the postcode, the north is the arbitrage.
The unicorns: HDB terraces
Landed living on an HDB lease — 41 blocks, ever.
In the 1960s, the state built a small number of single- and double-storey terrace houses under HDB tenure — at Jalan Bahagia and Jalan Ma'mor in Whampoa, and Stirling Road in Queenstown. They were never repeated. Own one and you own a landed home with a garden footprint at an HDB price point — the resale market treats them as cult objects, and prints regularly clear the million mark despite 1960s leases.
The honest caveat is the lease. These blocks date from the 1960s, which puts remaining leases in the 30-something-year range — deep into the decay curve we chart in our lease-decay analysis, where value erodes fastest and financing thins out. A terrace here is a lifestyle purchase with a countdown clock, not a wealth-transfer vehicle. Buy it to live a landed life cheaply for two decades; do not buy it as your children's inheritance.
The case for — and the case against
Space per dollar nothing private matches, with two structural catches.
The case for: a 1,600+ sqft maisonette in Hougang or Woodlands trades for less per square foot than any private option in its town — often less than half. The format is extinct, family-sized, and every year a few more blocks vanish into redevelopment schemes while demand from space-hungry families grows. Scarcity with a floor under it.
The case against, honestly: one, the lease — most maisonettes date from 1985–1995, so remaining leases sit around 58–68 years; fine for a generation of living, but the decay curve is real and our lease analysis shows exactly where it bites. Two, the ceiling — HDB pricing has a social gravity that private property doesn't; the spectacular gains happened in the catch-up decade that's largely behind us. Buy a big flat as a home with an unusually good space-per-dollar deal. Don't buy it as a growth asset. Those are different purchases.
A fixed pool, draining slowly, that nobody will ever refill.
- Space hunters: Hougang and Woodlands are the arbitrage — trophy-format space without trophy-town pricing.
- Trophy hunters: Bishan maisonettes and the 41 terrace blocks are the cult assets; expect to pay for the cult.
- Everyone: check the lease year before you fall in love. The format is forever; the lease is not.
Want the block-level list for your town?
The full map is block-by-block — which streets, which blocks, what they last transacted at, and what the lease runway looks like. Tell me your town and budget.
318 condos trade 20%+ below their own district. The 50% club is where it gets interesting.
318 projects trade 20%+ below their own district median. The deep-end table — value or trap, decided by exit records.
The MOP wave map: 14,000 Tengah flats and your next buyer
14,124 Tengah flats hit MOP soon. Where the upgrader waves land next — and which condos are positioned to catch them.
Methodology & honesty notes. Block inventory from HDB Property Information (data.gov.sg), tagged maisonette / jumbo / terrace only where a resale transaction in that block confirms the format — counts are therefore conservative. Executive-flat counts are complete inventory; maisonette confirmation depends on transaction history. Price observations reference recent resale prints; lease-remaining figures derive from block completion years. Lease-decay context: see our Market Analysis piece on the decay curve. POV Realty and Farhan Adenan are not the marketing agents for any project or listing referenced, and nothing here is financial advice — it's a starting point for your own due diligence, which is exactly how we'd use it.
Farhan Adenan · CEA Registration R068636D · Senior Associate Division Director, Huttons Asia Pte Ltd (Estate Agent Licence L3008899K).