Every Singaporean wants to live in a dreamy atas mansion on the rolling hills of Bukit Timah. But how many of us can actually afford one while earning $1.50 per hour writing articles for Goody Feed?

But what if we told you that you could live on landed property without paying the millions that come with it?

The catch is the house is an HDB.

Wait, what?

What are landed HDBs?

In the late 1950s, before HDB was established, it was Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) that managed public housing developed these terraces. They were built on land in Whampoa and Queenstown.

Only in the later 1960s and 1970s that HDB took over these prized properties and imposed their famous 99-year lease. Unlike private owned property, these homes are fully owned by HDB.

That means owners of the terrace are not allowed to change the appearance and structure of the buildings. The sidewalls of the buildings are also labelled with HDB block numbers.

The 99-year lease started from 01 Jul 1968 for the HDB terraced flats in Queenstown and Whampoa terrace leases started from 1 July 1972. Even now, they are still available for sale and have still maintained their value and popularity.

Which leads to this:

New Home In Whampoa

One of them, a lovely quaint home with 2 stories, 2 patios and an outdoor shower has been sold for $785,000.

In fact, you can find it on Carousell amongst many other lovely listings that might interest you.

That is an almost unimaginable rate for any landed property in this land starved island, so how can it be so cheap?

Even though it is landed, it still belongs to the government and HDB council so you can only lease it, but you are unable to purchase it for freehold. When the lease is up, the house reverts back to HDB ownership. The house also cannot be altered and rebuilt if you do not like the structure and shape.

This means you’ve only 52 years to live in this dream house.

So, what can $785k bring you?

This:

…this…

…this…

…and this:

Here’s how these HDB houses look from the outside:

The house might be sold, but at least you earn something today, eh?