Land prices keep setting records. Are they real records?

Every time a land tender result comes out, the group chats say the same thing: wah, so high. Then the headlines call it a record again. I went through every land sale since August 2018 to find out which bids really were records.

Sales are put in order of award date. A site gets a label if its price was higher than every earlier sale in the same group. There are four groups: the Core Central Region (CCR), the Rest of Central Region (RCR) and the Outside Central Region (OCR) for private homes, and executive condos (EC) on their own, for the reason given under the first chart.

Record means the site was also higher than the old record from before our data starts, in 2017 or 2018. High since 2018 means it was higher than every sale in our records, but the old record is still higher.

Collective sales, private treaty and other sales get no label. Their prices include lease top-ups and betterment charges where these were reported, but many reports don’t say, so they can’t be compared exactly with government land sales.

Sites with shops or other uses are grouped with residential ones, though their floor area includes the non-residential part. Twelve industrial and landed sites are left out, and one collective sale that became a hotel (Katong Plaza). 29 collective, private treaty and other sales have no region in the data, so they show blank under the region filter and can’t be compared.

Every comparison looks at sites sold within the time period you pick (a year to start with), before or after the site you pick. Government land sales only leaves out collective sales, private treaty and other sales. Private sites are only compared with private sites, and executive condos only with executive condos. All sale types are included; collective, private treaty and other sales are drawn as hollow dots.

Same region uses sites in the same region (CCR, RCR or OCR). Nearest sites uses the straight-line distance between the sites’ locations in the data, whatever their region. Same type uses sites of the same kind (homes only, mixed-use, or homes with shops on the ground floor; you can pick more than one), in the same region to start with. Switch off Same region only to see every region. There’s no median then, because a median of regions whose land prices are far apart would mislead. A median is only given when there are at least three sites to compare with.

Planning regions and planning areas come from URA’s Master Plan 2019 boundaries. Sites with no location in the data can’t be put on the map or compared by distance.

• 26 September 2026 — The map now shows only the sites you can look up: every site sold but not yet launched, and every site sold since June 2025. It can be zoomed, and once you pick a site, the others fade. The comparison list shows the three sites priced just above and below yours, with the rest a tap away. Sites are named by the plot sold, with the project name added. Two sites sold in 2025 now make up One Chuan Grove, Dorset Road is now Dorset Gardens, and Katong Plaza is left out because it became a hotel. The table now lists recent sales, and every record setter since 2018, or both. It no longer has a Tenure column; the one freehold site is marked by name. Comparisons can cover 6 months, a year or two years, and government land sales only, and the second comparison site was removed. The map’s notes are folded under How to read this map. The section on what this means for new launch buyers was removed; the question it answered is in the FAQ. Moved from first draft to soft launch.
• 25 September 2026 — Reordered the page so the findings read in one go before the map and the table. The map now comes first in the site comparison, the list of sites under it and the table start folded, and the same-type comparison takes more than one type.
• 24 September 2026 — Added the Lorong Puntong / Sin Ming Avenue award (18 September 2026, $1,612 psf ppr), the new highest RCR price since 2018. Region names now use URA’s terms. The site comparison and the map are now one tool, with three ways to compare and the sites still open for tender. Executive condos start hidden on the chart and the map.
• 23 September 2026 — Added collective sales, private treaty and other sales to the chart and table, a way to compare any site with similar ones, and a map of sites sold but not yet launched. Removed the list of unsold sites.
• 23 September 2026 — Removed the bidding sections to focus on land price trends.
• 23 September 2026 — Text shortened and simplified. No figures changed.
• 22 September 2026 — Layout brought in line with the other Geek Out pages. Findings reworded, the first chart given a line for the highest price so far, and four columns taken out of the table. No figures changed.
• 19 September 2026 — Published. Data current to the New Upper Changi Road award of 4 September 2026.