HDB Resale Prices in the North: Woodlands, Yishun, Sembawang

The North is where many first-time buyers go to stretch a budget, so the question is concrete: what do flats actually sell for in Woodlands, Yishun and Sembawang? This page answers it from the official record. We take HDB’s own resale transactions, published on data.gov.sg, and compute the median price for each flat type over the most recent 12 complete months (October 2025 to September 2026). Every figure below is from that dataset; the method is at the end.

Which towns are in the North

The Urban Redevelopment Authority’s statutory Master Plan divides Singapore into five planning regions: Central, North, North-East, East and West. Woodlands, Yishun and Sembawang all lie in the North. We group HDB’s resale “town” labels by that regional framework so you can compare the three neighbours directly instead of hunting through a national table.

The three towns look similar on a map but differ underneath: Woodlands and Yishun are large, mostly mature towns, while Sembawang is one of Singapore’s younger HDB towns, built up heavily from the 2000s. That age gap turns out to explain a lot of the price difference.

Median resale prices by town and flat type

Each figure is the median resale price — the middle transaction, so half sold for more and half for less — over the 12 months to September 2026, with the number of sales behind it. We omit any flat type with fewer than 20 sales, the same threshold HDB uses for its own statistics.

Woodlands

Flat type	Median resale price	Sales (12 months)
2-room	S$378,000	35
3-room	S$412,500	206
4-room	S$550,000	874
5-room	S$655,000	527
Executive	S$918,000	184

Yishun

Flat type	Median resale price	Sales (12 months)
2-room	S$362,500	54
3-room	S$433,000	415
4-room	S$550,000	780
5-room	S$690,444	256
Executive	S$900,000	67

Sembawang

Flat type	Median resale price	Sales (12 months)
2-room	S$377,500	90
3-room	S$520,000	98
4-room	S$600,000	386
5-room	S$640,000	240
Executive	S$751,000	57

What the numbers say

The North is genuinely affordable. For a 4-room flat, Woodlands and Yishun both sit at a S$550,000 median, with Sembawang higher at S$600,000 — all below the Singapore-wide 4-room median. The pattern holds for smaller flats too: Yishun and Woodlands 3-room flats sell around S$412,500–433,000, among the lowest of any region.

Bar chart of median 4-room HDB resale prices: Woodlands S$550,000, Yishun S$550,000, Sembawang S$600,000

Median 4-room resale price, Oct 2025 to Sep 2026.

Sembawang is the outlier, and not because it is better located — it is further out. Its flats are simply newer, so buyers pay more for a longer lease. Only at the top, with executive flats, does Sembawang fall below its neighbours (a S$751,000 median against S$900,000+ in Yishun and Woodlands), because its executive stock is smaller and thinner.

Why a median moves

A higher town median does not always mean flats got dearer. The median is just the middle of whatever sold, so it moves when the mix changes: more large, high-floor or newer flats in a period lift the median even if no single flat gained value. HDB itself cautions that its resale prices “should be taken as indicative only” because they depend on many factors. For the underlying trend stripped of mix effects, HDB publishes a separate Resale Price Index; the figures here are transaction medians, best read as “what sold, for how much”.

Why prices differ across the North

Most of the gap between these towns comes down to three things:

Flat age and remaining lease. Sembawang’s flats are young, which lifts its medians; Yishun and Woodlands have more older stock.
Flat size and model. Towns with more large, newer 5-room and executive flats post higher medians regardless of location.
Amenities and transport. Woodlands anchors the North with its regional centre and the Thomson–East Coast Line, supporting demand across flat types.

If you are torn between a cheaper older flat and a pricier newer one, read HDB lease decay and your flat’s value first — the headline price is only half the decision.

Lease left behind the price

The lease is where the North’s towns really diverge. In our data the median remaining lease of a Sembawang 4-room resale was about 90.4 years, against roughly 71.0 in Woodlands and 61.6 in Yishun. A Sembawang buyer paying S$600,000 is often buying three extra decades of lease compared with a same-priced flat elsewhere.

Card showing median remaining lease of North 4-room flats: Yishun ~62 years, Woodlands ~71, Sembawang ~90

Median remaining lease behind 4-room resale sales.

That difference shapes financing, not just future resale. The CPF Board states that “if the remaining lease of the flat can last the youngest owner until age 95, the amount of CPF savings you can use is capped at the lower of the purchase price and the valuation price.” Where the lease cannot cover the youngest buyer to 95, CPF use is pro-rated — so an older Yishun flat can mean less usable CPF and more cash up front, even if its price looks like a bargain.

How this compares with HDB’s official figures

HDB publishes its own median for each town and flat type, one quarter at a time. For the third quarter of 2026 (July–September) HDB recorded S$545,000 for a Woodlands 4-room, S$550,000 for a Yishun 4-room and S$605,000 for a Sembawang 4-room — effectively in line with our 12-month medians of S$550,000, S$550,000 and S$600,000. They will not match exactly: HDB covers one quarter, rounds to the nearest hundred dollars and includes cash-over-valuation, while our window is a rolling 12 months that smooths quarterly swings. Use HDB’s table for the latest quarter, ours for the steadier picture.

Where the numbers come from

Every price here is computed from HDB’s dataset “Resale flat prices based on registration date from Jan-2017 onwards” on data.gov.sg, which is “updated daily” and ran to October 2026 when we pulled it. We queried the official datastore API, kept the 12 complete months to September 2026, and took the median of resale_price per town and flat type. The dataset excludes “resale transactions that may not reflect the full market price such as resale between relatives and resale of part shares”, so these are arm’s-length deals. We publish aggregates only, never individual records.

How to use these figures

Buyers: use the median for your flat type as a check on asking prices, then adjust for lease, floor and condition. Plan the full outlay with our total cost of buying an HDB flat guide.
Sellers: price against the median and recent comparable sales, not the one headline deal in your block — see how to price your resale flat.
Comparing regions: the East sells for more across the board — see HDB resale prices in the East for Tampines, Bedok and Pasir Ris.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Sembawang dearer than Yishun or Woodlands? Mostly lease. Sembawang’s flats are newer, with median remaining leases near 90.4 years, so buyers pay more for a longer-lived asset rather than for a more central location.

Do these prices include cash over valuation (COV)? The transaction prices are the actual agreed resale prices, which can be above or below valuation. HDB’s own quarterly medians are explicitly inclusive of COV where the price exceeds valuation.

How often is this updated? The underlying HDB dataset is refreshed daily on data.gov.sg. Our medians reflect the 12 months to September 2026 and are recomputed as new months close.

Is the North always the cheapest choice? For a given flat type it is often among the cheapest, but a short lease can erode that advantage. Weigh price against remaining lease and your financing, not price alone.

General information from official data, not property or financial advice. Confirm current prices on data.gov.sg and your CPF and loan limits with the official calculators.