How Much is Your House Worth?

By Valerie Toh, http://www.hugproperty.com

Every day you return to the concrete shelter that houses your stuff, your family and yourself – your house.

Every proud homeowner will be most excited to share with you the spanking new furnishing, flooring, and exquisite detail – all carefully and tastefully selected before they moved in, to piece together the place they call home today.

As the days go on, preferences may change, situations might differ and the need to sell your house may be real. What price should you tag to your beloved house where countless memories were created?

How would you know what’s an appropriate and realistic price to facilitate a fast transaction? Firstly, you would have to know how much is your house worth.

You could get a professional valuation done by the bank, engage an external valuer, depend on the expertise of a property agent…or depend on yourself. How would you find out what’s a good range to price your house?

The answer is simple. Look at the latest transacted prices of units similar to your house.

For HDBs

You can check the most recent HDB transactions of similar units by entering the below information.

1. Your Flat Type (e.g. 3-room, 4-room flat etc.)
2. Your Street Name (e.g. Ang Mo Kio Ave 10)
3. Your Block Number
   You want to enter a plus 5, minus 5 range from your actual block. If your block number is 466, the range should be 461-471.
   This increases the probability of relevant data showing up while maintaining a short distance radius from your house, providing higher accuracy.
4. Your Resale Registration Date as 12 months

Select ‘Accept’ and you can access the information.

You can also look at prices for the different floor levels ranging from low to high floors as a gauge for determining your unit’s asking price.

For Private Properties

What if you’re living in a private property? Fret not, for you can track the latest transactions for private properties over at Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA).

Some simple steps to get started would include:

1. Selecting the Date of Sale
   You will notice that URA pulls up data from up to 3 years before. You can play around with the setting and adjust it according to how recent you would like the data to display.
2. Selecting the Type of Sale
   There are 3 types shown, namely New Sale, Sub Sale and Resale. New Sale refers to a direct purchase from a developer. Sub Sale is when someone purchased an uncompleted unit from a developer and sells it before the unit is completed. Resale is when the homeowner decides to sell their house on. If you’re interested in selling your house, most likely you would fall in the Resale category. You can also choose to leave the ‘Type of Sale’ category unticked as well.
3. Select Projects
   Enter your Condominium’s name eg. Ivory Heights or the neighbourhood your Terrace is in eg. Westville. Select the project when the project name comes up.

Click on ‘Search’ and allow a few seconds for the information to show.

You can compare the sizes, preferably plus 100 sqft, minus 100 sqft from your unit’s size. If your unit is 960 sqft, look at the units that are around 860-1060 sqft. This would be a good estimate for how much similar sized units are going for.

If there are no similarly sized units, look at the next closest size.

The Price Per Square Feet (PPSF), also known as Unit Price, is also a good indicator of price and by the rule of thumb, the larger the unit, the lower the PPSF as the price is divided by a larger area.

Based on this train of thought, if a smaller unit’s PPSF is lower than a larger unit’s PPSF, it means the smaller unit is going for a steal.

For HDBs and Private Properties alike, you can always look up the market asking price in addition to the latest transacted price. This presents a clearer picture and representation of the current market when you are looking to sell your house.

With the above tips and tricks, you will be well on your way to pricing your house right to attract more buyers and bids. Securing the best price for your house is important…because your house is worth it. You’re worth it.