What can I buy with $1m?

I think many potential owner-occupiers are in a fix. Facing some fear of job insecurity, stagnant salary, rising asking prices unmatched by bank valuations, this group who want to buy a unit closer to city is not having too much luck. Should they wait and wait? Some waited since 2007 and still waiting...

Analysing the caveats <= $1million lodged from April to June 2009 for private apt/ condo in district 1, 9, 10, 11 and 15, there are 620 transactions. Out of these caveats:

• the lowest PSF is $253 for an unknown project at East Coast Road. The size was 2329sqft and was sold for $590,000.
• the highest PSF is $1724psf for ILLUMINAIRE ON DEVONSHIRE at Devonshire Road. It was for a tiny 463sqft unit and was sold for $798,000. This is a newly launched project. The highest PSF for a TOPed project is at Nomu on Handy Road. The size was 601sqft and was sold for $980,000.

But I am looking for a place to stay now, you may say. Let's use 850-1100sqft which are typically the size of a 2 or 3 bedder as a baseline and see what these projects are. The data is now reduced to just 142 caveats.

• the lowest PSF is $559 for an unknown project at Joo Chiat Lane. The size was 1001sqft and was sold for $560,000.
• the highest PSF is $1100 for Valley Park at RIVER VALLEY ROAD. The size was 861sqft and was sold for $947,000.
• the most popular project is VERSILIA ON HAIG. Also there is no project in D01. You will also notice that these caveats are very distributed across most projects, thus re-emphasising the reality that it is very difficult for buyers in this category to find the project they prefer.
• So where WERE (not ARE) the gems as the asking prices are very likely to have risen now? I like One Amber (FH, D15), Tanglin Regency (99, D10), AMARYLLIS VILLE (99, D11), MEYER RESIDENCE (99, D15 and just TOP) and Spring Grove (99, D09).