Terrace sales hold steady as semi-detached purchases fall 13.3%

Terrace-home sales held steady while semi-detached transactions fell 13.3% to 143 in the third quarter of 2026, according to Huttons Data Analytics’ landed-housing report. The average terrace purchase was S$4.7 million, compared with S$6.9 million for a semi-detached home.

The S$2.2 million gap, calculated from those rounded averages, gives useful budget context to Huttons’ interpretation that some buyers priced out of semi-detached homes shifted towards terraces. It is a comparison of the quarter’s purchases, rather than an established cause of the differing sales volumes. For buyers considering either category, the report also shows why the total purchase price and the price per square foot need to be read separately.

Fewer landed deals, but terraces held their ground

Huttons recorded 487 landed transactions, down from 516 in the previous quarter, a decline of 5.6%. Within that quieter market, semi-detached sales fell more sharply, while terrace sales held steady. The distinction is resilience in terrace activity, rather than a reported surge in terrace transactions.

The report uses data as of 23 October 2026 and excludes Good Class Bungalows and strata/cluster houses. Its findings therefore describe a defined part of Singapore’s landed market, rather than every form of landed living.

Huttons attributes the overall slowdown partly to a softer resale market for HDB flats and private condominiums, alongside the Lunar Seventh Month. Its affordability explanation for the shift towards terraces, like its other explanations of buyer behaviour, is the research house’s interpretation of the transaction patterns—not direct evidence of each household’s reasons for buying.

The total cheque tells a different story from land psf

The report’s average purchase prices moved in opposite directions. The semi-detached average rose 4.2% to S$6.9 million, while the terrace average fell 1.9% to S$4.7 million. In everyday terms, the average semi-detached transaction involved a larger total cheque than in the previous quarter, while the terrace average eased.

Yet Huttons’ land-price-per-square-foot measure rose in both categories: 4.7% for semi-detached homes and 2.7% for terraces. This is different from purchase quantum—the total amount paid for a property. One measures price relative to land area; the other measures the whole transaction.

That distinction helps explain how the terrace figures can move in different directions. A lower average total purchase price can sit alongside a higher land psf measure when the properties changing hands have different land areas or a different mix of characteristics. The report also records a smaller average plot across its landed transaction sample.

The S$2.2 million gap is consequently a description of the quarter’s two groups, not a like-for-like saving on interchangeable houses. The comparison does not match individual properties by location, tenure, size or condition. Its value is in showing the scale of the category-level budget difference before a buyer compares specific homes.

Smaller plots changed the transaction mix

Across Huttons’ covered landed transactions, average land area fell from 3,079 sq ft in 2Q2026 to 2,910 sq ft in 3Q2026. That is a calculated difference of 169 sq ft, or about 5.5% of the earlier average.

This describes the properties sold in each quarter; it does not mean individual homes’ plots physically became smaller. The later quarter’s sample had a lower average land area. Huttons reads that pattern as buyers adjusting to rising per-square-foot land costs by purchasing smaller plots.

The average purchase price across its covered landed sample also eased, from S$6.5 million in 1Q2026 to S$6.3 million in 2Q2026, then S$6.1 million in 3Q2026. Alongside the land-area figures, that sequence illustrates why a lower average purchase amount should not automatically be read as cheaper land: the basket of properties sold matters.

For someone following the market through headline prices, these measures answer different questions. The average purchase amount describes the money paid per transaction, while average plot size describes the land area bought. Reading them together gives a clearer picture of what changed hands than either figure alone.

More HDB upgraders bought landed homes

There is a household-level detail behind the broader totals. Huttons counted 58 landed purchases by HDB upgraders, compared with 45 in the preceding quarter—13 more purchases even as overall landed transactions declined. The report says most buyers in this group focused on terrace houses, which it attributes to concern about further price increases.

That makes HDB upgraders a notable contrast within the quarter: this group recorded more landed purchases while the covered market recorded fewer overall. Their reported focus on terraces adds another concrete detail to the category’s steadier sales performance.

For buyers weighing a terrace against a semi-detached home, the clearest takeaway is the separation of total budget, land price per square foot and plot size. In this quarter’s sample, the average terrace purchase required substantially less money, even as its land psf measure rose. The practical trade-off was not simply whether landed homes were getting cheaper, but how much land and which category buyers purchased for their total budget.