Singapore condo database

PropertyGuru database

Free SAMPLE:
PropertyGuru Condo Directory

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SingaporeExpats database

Free SAMPLE:
SingaporeExpats Condo Directory

Buy full database + 1 year of FREE updates:

Description – Singapore Expats & Property Guru condo database

In 2009 I started making a database of all buildings in Singapore, for my personal research, sourcing condo name from map then digging various websites for details such as number of units (imagine how much time would take!). I abandoned the work in 2011 because it required too much effort to be done voluntarily.

In 2012 I published on website a sample of that database of all buildings and also a list of major condos, waiting for feedback to see does worth continuing the project, as paid service for professional use. Took 2 years to get feedback and realize what kind of data people are looking for, I revived the database in 2014 into a database of HDB buildings only, planning to start a separate database for condos, I posted a message in List of major condos page inviting people who are interested in a complete condo directory to contact me.

The first customer to contact me for condo database came only in September 2015, he purchased the HDB Database previously. Incidentally, in August 2015 I found tools that extract data from websites automatically, so I offered him 3 options: automatic data scraping from SingaporeExpats for $150 (2809 condos), automatic data scraping from PropertyGuru for $300 (3148 condos, a bit more details for each condo, such as postal code and number of floors), or manual data building, write condo names from onemap.sg then fill up details from above websites, for $1000 (this way would make most complete database). He said that is necessary to be very complete database, agreed with automatic scraping way, even told me specifically to scrap data from PropertyGuru, but this turned impossible because website display a CAPTCHA after every 10 pages accessed by scraping application. I ended in scraping SingaporeExpats.

SingaporeExpats is not a newsy website but a simple condo directory and it is lagging in terms of updates with latest condo launches, customer complained, and one of my friends (programmer) told me that can make in Visual Basic a custom scraping application for PropertyGuru, so I made him an offer. Programmer spend 2 weeks until he found a way to deal with CAPTCHA but charged me $300 for this, customer did not replied, after a month and multiple email he said that do not want to pay extra fee (despite that he asked initially to scrap PropertyGuru).

I posted a message inviting people interested in PropertyGuru to contact me and pay 50% fee in advance. Someone paid in July 2016 and programmer made a new scraping application. I get a CAPTCHA page every 10-50 pages which I solve myself in order for scraper to continue. PropertyGuru website was redesigned in June 2018 making scraper obsolete, I asked same programmer to make a new scraper, but this time he was getting CAPTCHA on every single page so gave up.

I contacted an Indian company who provide data mining services and they made a new scraper for PropertyGuru in Excel VBA + using their human power to solve captchas, and gave me data only. I told them to include every possible data from website, including condo description, nearest MRT an schools, GPS coordinates, etc, increasing Excel file size from 2.4 to 10 MB.

Due to CAPTCHA I would needed to pay them each time I want them to run scraper and update all condos, alternatively I could add new launched condos manually without updating older records. But sales of Excel database dropped in 2019 and updates were no longer viable.

In December 2020 a programmer from Egypt joined my team, he made a script in Python that avoid CAPTCHA, gave me the script which I can run in my computer anytime someone wants update (it takes just 30 minutes to extract data of 3300+ condos from PropertyGuru). Unfortunately it produced about 500 duplicate condos and same number of missing condos.

In 2024 I noticed that PropertyGuru no longer have CAPTCHA, allowing me to scrape again myself, takes 5 hours and no longer produce duplicates or missing condos.

Looking for Singapore condo floor plans and sale brochures? Visit sgfloorplans.com

Smallest condo apartments

Smallest apartment in Singapore is 24 sqm (258 sq ft), 4 units in Suites @ Guillemard. All other studio apartments are 35+ sqm and have separate bed area. This because of URA which regulate minimum apartment size. However we need regulations of minimum apartment size for each number of rooms, to prevent extremely crowded condos like in the following examples:

Alexis Condo, 1-bedroom 36 sqm, 1-bedroom+study 47 sqm, 2-bedroom 56 sqm, very crowded layout, some apartments have no view.

Tree Scape @ Telok Kurau (site dead), 1-bedroom+study 40 sqm , 2-bedroom 49 sqm, 3-bedroom 56-65 sqm, 4-bedroom 84 sqm.

Natura @ Hillview (site dead), 1-bedroom 42 sqm, 2-bedroom 48-50 sqm, 3-bedroom 59-61 sqm, bedrooms sized like in Hong Kong (2×2 m).

High Park Residences is one of the FEW condos that include dimensions in floor plan. You can see that largest apartment type (5-bedroom) is 129 sqm, approximately the size of a 5-room 3-bedroom HDB from 1980s. Common bedrooms are just 2.5 x 2.5 meters.

Biggest condo apartments

I compiled this list in 2013, checking condo blocks that looked fat and bulky when viewed on map, to find biggest regular 3/4-bedroom apartment sizes. Condos having one huge penthouse all other apartments small are not included. You could click below links to see unit types until 2015 when SingaporeExpats stopped showing unit types and their floor areas in condo directory.

Arcadia Garden (1983): 3 bedrooms 322 – 347 sq m, 4 bedrooms 345 – 434 sq m, Maisonette 610 sq m, Penthouse 697 sq m.
Fontana Heights (1985): 4 bedrooms 321 – 442 sq m, Penthouse 1102 sq m.
The Claymore (1985): 3 bedrooms 249 sq m, 4 bedrooms 311 sq m, Penthouse 457 sq m.
Astrid Meadows (1990): 3 bedrooms 180 – 240 sq m, 4 bedrooms 247 – 354 sq m, Penthouse 622 sq m.
Ardmore Park (2001): 4 bedrooms 268 sq m, Penthouse 812 sq m.
Grange Residences (2004) 4+1 bedrooms 2600 – 2853 sq ft.
Dairy Farm Estate (1989): 3 bedrooms: 181 – 205 sq m, Maisonette: 148 – 217 sq m.
Hillcrest Arcadia (1980): 3 bedrooms 132 – 183 sq m, Maisonette 255 – 269 sq m, Penthouse 213 – 235 sq m.

Also: Cairnhill Crest supposedly having 7 bedroom maisonettes… while all others apartments of Singapore have max 4-5 bedrooms. I would like to see an actual floor plan…