# PropNex HDB Survey 2026 Shows Changing Upgrading Preferences

- **Source:** Stacked Homes
- **Published:** 2026-08-13T11:43:01.000Z
- **Author:** Ryan J. Ong
- **Original:** https://stackedhomes.com/a-new-survey-reveals-what-77-of-hdb-owners-want-most-in-their-next-home-and-its-not-price-or-space/
- **Topics:** HDB & Public Housing, Private Residential

## Featured rationale

The findings signal increasingly selective upgrading demand, potentially favouring accessible, reasonably priced RCR and neighbourhood projects over CCR homes and reducing future private-home demand as owners age.

## AI summary

PropNex’s 2026 survey found 55.1% of HDB owners aspire to private housing, while 73.9% said their existing flat adequately meets their needs.

## Original article

There is a widely held and longstanding narrative among aspiring Singaporean homeowners about climbing the property ladder.

Most buyers start out with a HDB flat, perhaps moving on to an Executive Condominium (EC), and then eventually upgrading to a condominium. Those with the means then go on to purchase a landed house.

But a recent homeowner survey by property agency PropNex suggests our attitudes towards property progression, and this well-worn upgrading narrative, may be getting a little more complicated.

The survey, titled ‘HDB Flat Owners Sentiment Report 2026’ and published on Aug 12, polled more than 1,530 HDB flat owners between February and June this year. One of the key findings was that 55.1% of those surveyed still aspire to eventually own private housing, but when we look deeper into the responses there are some interesting caveats.

Many respondents wanted to eventually own a private property, but were also perfectly content with their HDB flats. Interestingly, those who had stayed in HDB flats for the longest time were also the group which expressed the least interest in upgrading. Another unexpected finding was that prime district condos seemed to be low on their wishlist.

Taken together, the findings suggest that the typical, and expected approach, towards the property ladder has changed quite a bit for some Singaporeans. Here’s what else the survey discovered.

1. HDB flats are increasingly seen viewed as long-term homes, rather than just the first rung of the property ownership ladder

Overall, aspiring private home upgraders still make up the majority of survey respondents, but it’s arguably a slight one with just 55.1% of participants indicating that way. Close to half of the people surveyed don’t intend to “move up” from their existing flat.

Among the respondents who had lived in their HDB flat for less than five years, a solid 40.2% say they have no plans to upgrade. It jumped to 45.0% among the group who had stayed in their flat for 11 to 15 years, 52.3% at 16 to 20 years, and 63.0% at more than 20 years. This suggests that the longer someone has stayed in their flat, the less likely they are to want to upgrade.

PropNex notes that this is due to certain homeowners, particularly the elderly, developing support networks and familiarity with the area.

In addition, agents on the ground have shared anecdotally that upgrading has become much more challenging for older homeowners compared to younger ones. This is because as they age, their maximum loan tenure shrinks and raises higher barriers when it comes to upgrading, especially if they want to minimise the amount of debt they hold in their senior years.

This is reinforced by the generational breakdown, which is also naturally reflective of age. PropNex found that around 65.8% of Millennials surveyed aspire to one day own a private home, compared to just 27.9% of Baby Boomers. The agency attributes this to the fact that most younger households are in relatively stronger positions to start accumulating wealth and are starting new families, while older households may increasingly prioritise rightsizing or retirement.

Nonetheless, as Singapore becomes a super-aged society, this could have a broader impact on our traditional approach towards the property ownership ladder. As more homeowners grow older, upgrading to private may become much less of a priority and this could affect the overall demand for new private residential units in the future.

2. Aspiring to own a condo unit doesn’t necessarily mean you’re unhappy with your HDB flat

In my view, this is one of the most interesting contradictions in the survey. Despite 55.1% of survey respondents aspiring to own a private home, 73.9% of respondents agreed that their existing HDB flat adequately meets their housing needs.

That’s mostly unchanged from the 74.% response rate for this question that was recorded in PropNex’s 2024 survey.

Housing satisfaction was particularly high among owners of larger flats. More than three-quarters of respondents living in 5-room flats, DBSS flats, and Executive agreed their current flat adequately met their needs.

PropNex notes that the desire to upgrade may be driven more by evolving lifestyle needs, than unhappiness with the current home. However, from our perspective, there’s a good chance that the upgrading interest may stem from financial or status-based reasons.

If we ignore the usual “face-saving” reasons (e.g., my cousin bought a condo so now I need one too), a common sentiment among some readers is a sense of safety. For example, owning a condo makes them feel they have a “backup” as they can rightsize and still have a substantial amount of cash. On the other hand, there may be the feeling that owning a three- or four-room flat at a time of crisis may cause some homeowners to feel more “cornered”.

Whether this is correct is a matter for qualified personal finance experts, but it’s certainly an attitude we come across often in our engagements with some buyers and owners.

In any case, it suggests that the ‘quality gap’ between HDB and private housing may not be as significant as most of us may assume. Having a pool and gym at your doorstep is a nice feature, but apparently not so nice that it makes us long to leave our flats.

3. Convenience may matter more than prestige

Another noteworthy finding was where respondents actually wanted their next home to be.

Among those aspiring private home owners, they indicated that condos in the city-fringe – or Rest of Central Region (RCR) – were the most popular choice, with 18.3% of them leaning in that direction. This was followed by a desire to own a suburban, or Outside Central Region (OCR) condo, which garnered 15.7% interest.

As a result, the desirability for a condo in the city centre, or Core Central Region (CCR), attracted a mere 7.2% of the participants interest. If property aspirations were primarily about prestige, this would be an odd result.

But follow up questions in the survey give us a possible explanation. When respondents were asked to select the three most important attributes of their next home, the number-one answer was accessibility.

A sizeable 77% selected proximity to an MRT station, bus interchange or transport hub as a significant buying factor. This was followed by reasonable pricing at 67% and adequate living space at 41.6%. By comparison, just 23% selected proximity to commercial amenities, while proximity to workplaces and primary schools were each selected by 17.4%, respectively.

As Wong Siew Ying, Head of Research and Content at PropNex Realty, states: “The assumption has long been that an HDB upgrader naturally gravitates towards private homes in the OCR”. However, the latest survey suggests that at least some Singaporeans may now see the RCR as striking a better balance between convenience and affordability.

Price may also explain why the overall desirability for CCR condos fell

About 60% of respondents had a budget of $1.5 million or less when it came to purchasing a private home, while another 21.9% cited a budget that ranged from $1.5 million to $2 million.

In other words, more than four in five respondents were working with a budget of less than $2 million when it came to purchasing a private home. Caveat data from URA and cited by PropNex showed that 52.8% of new and resale non-landed homes sold in the CCR in 2025 transacted below $2.5 million.

Wong suggested there may be a perception gap among some aspiring private home owners, who may wrongly assume that all condos in the prime districts are beyond their budgets.

However, we would contend that just being able to buy something in the CCR is quite different from finding the size, layout and location you actually need!

4. We may also be more attached to our neighbourhoods than we think

When asked where they wanted their next home to be, 40.6% simply answered: near their current home. That was comfortably ahead of every geographic region offered in the survey. The next most popular options were the city fringe at 18.5% and the East at 13.7%.

We have already covered a shifting attitude among buyers towards the private residential market.

In the past, condo buyers sometimes considered the proximity of large HDB clusters to be less exclusive, and hence less desirable. Today it’s the other way around – It’s commonly believed that HDB upgraders tend to look for replacement homes within the same neighbourhood, hence condos near HDB clusters may be based on a stronger exit strategy.

5. The 10-year MOP for Executive Condos (EC) may only now be starting to sink in

When respondents were asked what they would do if they purchased an EC, only 26.7% said they intended to stay there long-term with no intention of renting or selling it. The remaining 73.3% had some form of eventual exit strategy.

Around 22.2% say they would rent the EC after fulfilling the minimum occupation period (MOP), and another 25.7% say they would sell the property after the end of the MOP to upgrade again. Meanwhile, another 25.4% say they would sell the unit once the EC became fully privatised.

It is unsurprising that many buyers still see EC ownership as a rung to climb on the property ladder. However, the government’s recent changes to EC ownership may be starting to bite.

(For sites sold on or after 8 May 2026, the MOP has been doubled to 10 years, while full privatisation has been pushed from 10 to 15 years.)

Among the small group of 84 respondents surveyed after the changes were announced, 40.5% identified the 10-year MOP as the measure most likely to deter them from buying an affected EC. Only 16.7% said they were likely to buy one, compared to 44% who said this was unlikely.

The sample here is very small, so we can’t read too much into the exact percentages yet, but the reaction shows that the government’s moves to disincentive EC flipping are likely to work.

So, has the Singapore property dream actually changed?

PropNex Executive Chairman Ismail Gafoor still describes the HDB flat as a potential “springboard” into private housing, noting that a healthy resale market can give owners the confidence and financial means to upgrade. We can see that more than half still want private housing, particularly among younger respondents.

As PropNex CEO Kelvin Fong puts it: “This survey captures a market in the middle of change”, and he notes that upgrading aspirations remain intact, but affordability concerns are increasingly shaping those decisions.

While upgrading and moving up the property ladder her is still possible, it has become much more challenging, and the market shouldn’t make assumptions about underlying demand for private housing in the coming years, especially as demographic changes alter buyer preferences and needs.

## Chinese translation

> Translation model: grok_cli

### PropNex 2026年组屋调查显示升级偏好正在变化

PropNex于2026年对1530名组屋业主的调查显示，仅55.1%的人仍渴望拥有私人住宅，交通便利与邻里纽带如今在升级决策中已重于身份象征。

在有意置业的新加坡业主中，长期流传着一套攀登房产阶梯的叙事。

多数买家从组屋起步，或许再搬入执行共管公寓（EC），最终升级到共管公寓。有能力者再进一步购买有地洋房。

但产业代理PropNex最近一项业主调查显示，我们对房产进阶的态度，以及这套老生常谈的升级叙事，可能正变得更为复杂。

这项题为《2026年组屋业主情绪报告》的调查于8月12日发布，于今年2月至6月访问了超过1530名组屋业主。关键发现之一是，仍有55.1%的受访者渴望最终拥有私人住宅，但若深入看回答，其中不乏耐人寻味的保留意见。

许多受访者希望最终拥有私人房产，但同时也对自己的组屋相当满意。有趣的是，在组屋居住时间最长的群体，对升级的兴趣也最低。另一项出人意料的发现是，优质地段共管公寓似乎并不在他们的心愿清单前列。

综合来看，调查结果表明，对部分新加坡人而言，传统且被预期的房产阶梯路径已发生不小变化。调查还发现了以下情况。

1. 组屋越来越被视为长期居所，而不只是房产拥有阶梯的第一级

总体而言，有意升级至私人住宅的人仍占受访者多数，但优势可以说相当微弱，仅55.1%的参与者作此表示。近半数受访者并不打算从现有组屋“再往上走”。

在组屋居住不足五年的受访者中，足有40.2%表示没有升级计划。在居住11至15年的群体中，这一比例升至45.0%；16至20年为52.3%；超过20年则达63.0%。这表明，在组屋住得越久，越不倾向升级。

PropNex指出，这是因为部分业主——尤其是年长者——已在该区建立起支持网络与熟悉感。

此外，一线经纪也有传闻称，对年长业主而言，升级比年轻人困难得多。因为随着年龄增长，最长贷款年限缩短，升级门槛提高，尤其是他们希望在晚年尽量减少负债时。

代际划分也印证了这一点，而这自然也反映年龄。PropNex发现，约65.8%的千禧一代受访者渴望有朝一日拥有私人住宅，而婴儿潮一代仅为27.9%。该机构将此归因于：多数年轻家庭相对更有能力开始积累财富并组建新家庭，而年长家庭可能越来越优先考虑以大换小或退休。

尽管如此，随着新加坡迈向超老龄社会，这可能对传统房产拥有阶梯路径产生更广泛影响。随着更多业主年事渐高，升级至私人住宅的优先级可能大幅下降，进而影响未来对新私人住宅单位的整体需求。

2. 渴望拥有共管公寓，并不一定意味着对组屋不满

在我看来，这是调查中最有意思的矛盾之一。尽管55.1%的受访者渴望拥有私人住宅，仍有73.9%的受访者同意，现有组屋已足以满足住房需求。

这与PropNex 2024年调查中该问题74.%的回应率基本持平。

住房满意度在较大户型业主中尤其高。居住在五房式组屋、DBSS组屋和行政组屋的受访者中，逾四分之三同意现有组屋已充分满足需求。

PropNex指出，升级愿望可能更多由生活方式需求变化驱动，而非对现居不满。不过从我们的角度看，升级兴趣也很可能源于财务或身份层面的考量。

若抛开常见的“面子”原因（例如表弟买了共管公寓，所以我也得买一套），部分读者常有的一种心态是安全感。例如，拥有共管公寓让他们觉得有“后路”，因为可以以大换小后仍保有可观现金。另一方面，危机时刻若只拥有三房或四房式组屋，部分业主可能感到更“被困住”。

这是否正确，应交由合格的个人理财专家判断，但在我们与部分买家和业主的接触中，这种态度确实常见。

无论如何，这表明组屋与私人住宅之间的“品质差距”可能并不如多数人想象的那么大。家门口有泳池和健身房固然不错，但显然还没有好到让我们渴望离开组屋。

3. 便利可能比身份象征更重要

另一项值得注意的发现是，受访者真正希望下一套房子落在哪里。

在有意成为私人住宅业主的人当中，他们表示城市边缘——即中央区其余地区（RCR）——的共管公寓最受欢迎，有18.3%倾向这一方向。其次是希望拥有郊区，即中央区以外（OCR）的共管公寓，兴趣度为15.7%。

因此，市中心即核心中央区（CCR）共管公寓的吸引力仅获得7.2%参与者的兴趣。若房产抱负主要关乎身份，这会是一个奇怪的结果。

但调查的后续问题给出了一种可能解释。当受访者被要求选出下一套房子最重要的三项属性时，首选答案是交通便利。

相当可观的77%选择靠近地铁站、巴士转换站或交通枢纽为重要购买因素。其次是合理定价，占67%；充足居住空间占41.6%。相比之下，仅23%选择靠近商业配套，靠近工作地点和小学则各占17.4%。

正如PropNex Realty研究与内容主管Wong Siew Ying所言：“长期以来的假设是，组屋升级者自然会倾向OCR的私人住宅。”然而最新调查显示，至少部分新加坡人如今可能认为RCR在便利与可负担性之间取得了更好平衡。

价格或许也能解释为何CCR共管公寓的整体吸引力下降

约60%的受访者购买私人住宅的预算为新币150万元或以下，另有21.9%表示预算介于新币150万元至200万元。

换言之，超过五分之四的受访者购买私人住宅时，预算低于新币200万元。PropNex援引市区重建局（URA）的警告书数据显示，2025年CCR售出的新建与转售非有地住宅中，52.8%成交价低于新币250万元。

Wong认为，部分有意购买私人住宅的业主可能存在认知差距，误以为优质地段的所有共管公寓都超出预算。

不过我们要指出，仅仅买得起CCR某套房子，与找到真正需要的面积、户型和地段，完全是两回事！

4. 我们对邻里的依恋，可能比自己以为的更深

当被问及希望下一套房子在哪里时，40.6%的人干脆回答：靠近现居。这远远领先于调查中列出的每一个地理区域。其次最受欢迎的选项是城市边缘，占18.5%，以及东部，占13.7%。

我们已经讨论过买家对私人住宅市场态度的转变。

过去，共管公寓买家有时认为靠近大型组屋群不够“独家”，因而吸引力较低。如今情况反过来——人们普遍认为组屋升级者倾向在同一邻里寻找替换住房，因此靠近组屋群的共管公寓可能建立在更强的退出策略之上。

5. 执行共管公寓（EC）10年最低居住年限（MOP）的影响，或许才刚开始显现

当受访者被问及若购买EC会怎么做时，仅26.7%表示打算长期居住，无意出租或出售。其余73.3%都有某种最终退出策略。

约22.2%表示会在满足最低居住年限（MOP）后出租该EC，另有25.7%表示会在MOP结束后出售该物业以便再次升级。同时，另有25.4%表示会在EC完全私有化后出售该单位。

许多买家仍将EC所有权视为房产阶梯上的一级，这并不令人意外。不过，政府近期对EC所有权的调整或许已开始产生影响。

（对于2026年5月8日或之后售出的地段，MOP已加倍至10年，而完全私有化则从10年推迟至15年。）

在政策公布后受访的84人这一小群体中，40.5%认为10年MOP是最可能阻止他们购买受影响EC的措施。仅16.7%表示可能会购买，而44%表示不太可能。

这里的样本非常小，因此我们还不能过度解读确切百分比，但这一反应显示，政府抑制EC炒卖的举措很可能奏效。

那么，新加坡的房产梦是否真的变了？

PropNex执行主席Ismail Gafoor仍将组屋描述为迈向私人住宅的潜在“跳板”，并指出健康的转售市场能给予业主升级的信心与财务能力。我们可以看到，超过半数人仍想要私人住宅，尤其是较年轻的受访者。

正如PropNex首席执行官Kelvin Fong所说：“这项调查捕捉到一个处于变化之中的市场”，他指出升级愿望仍然存在，但可负担性担忧正日益塑造这些决定。

虽然升级并沿房产阶梯向上仍有可能，但已变得困难得多，市场不应就未来数年私人住宅的潜在需求妄下假设，尤其是在人口结构变化正在改变买家偏好与需求之际。