Landed Home Buyer’s Guide: What to Check Before Buying a Landed House in Singapore

The marble flooring.

The kitchen.

The bathrooms.

The carpentry.

Whether the house looks well maintained.

Or they walk into a 40-year-old house and immediately think:

“Everything is so old. This is going to cost a lot to fix.”

But after working on landed homes for many years, I have learnt something.

The things that make an old house look expensive to fix are not always the things that actually make it expensive to fix.

Ugly tiles can be replaced.

Old carpentry can be removed.

Walls can be repainted.

What I am more interested in is what the buyer wants to do with the house, what can realistically be retained, what constraints the property has, and how much work it will take to turn it into the home they actually want.

Because the right property for someone who wants to spend $350,000 after purchasing can be completely different from the right property for someone intending to spend $1 million or more on major works.

So before asking:

“Is this a good landed house to buy?”

I would start with a different question:

“What are you planning to do with it?”

Recently, I went to view an older landed property with a buyer.

He had roughly $350,000 in mind to do up the house after purchasing it.

But after looking at the condition of the property and what would realistically need to be replaced, my view was that he should be prepared to set aside closer to $550,000 to $650,000 just to bring it to a reasonable move-in condition.

Immediately, we had a mismatch.

It didn’t mean the property was bad.

It meant the property might not be right for his intended budget.

This is something I think landed buyers should establish very early.

Don’t only ask:

“How much can I afford to pay for the property?”

Ask:

“After buying it, how much am I comfortable spending to turn it into my home?”

If you only want to spend $300,000 to $400,000 after purchase, the condition of the existing house matters a lot.

If you already intend to spend significantly more on a major A&A, reconstruction or rebuild, I would assess the same property very differently.

Buying the property is only the first cheque.

First, Decide What You Intend to Do

Broadly, I would look at a landed property differently depending on whether you intend to renovate, carry out A&A, reconstruct or rebuild.

If you mainly want to renovate

The existing condition matters.

Can we retain the flooring?

Are the windows still usable?

Can some bathrooms remain?

Is the roof in reasonable condition?

Does the existing layout already work?

If most of the house works for your family, paying more for a reasonably maintained property may make sense because you are actually benefiting from what the previous owner spent.

If you are planning A&A

This becomes more complicated.

Perhaps you want to extend the rear.

Perhaps you want another storey.

Perhaps there is only a small existing attic and you want to extend the slab and create much more usable indoor space.

Now I am no longer simply asking:

“Is this existing finish nice?”

I am asking:

“Will it still be there after we do what you want to do?”

If you intend to reconstruct or rebuild

Then I become much less interested in expensive existing finishes.

The seller may tell you:

“The bathrooms are full marble.”

“The kitchen carpentry was very expensive.”

“We just changed all the flooring.”

That may be valuable to someone who intends to keep it.

But if you already know you are going to rip everything out, why should those finishes carry the same value to you?

I would rather understand the land, structure, constraints and redevelopment potential.

That is what you are really buying.

For buyers thinking about substantial A&A, reconstruction or rebuilding, there are three plans I would want to understand: the Road Line Plan (RLP), Sewerage Information Plan (SIP) and Drainage Interpretation Plan (DIP).

They don’t tell us everything, but they can reveal constraints that aren’t obvious when standing inside the house.

Road Line Plan (RLP)

The RLP helps us understand whether the property is affected by a road reserve and the category of road it fronts.

This can affect how the property may eventually be developed and the applicable building setbacks.

So don’t simply look at the land area and think:

“I bought this much land, therefore I can build on all of it.”

That may not necessarily be the case.

Sewerage Information Plan (SIP)

The SIP gives us information about public sewer infrastructure around the property.

Is there a sewer running through or close to the land?

Where is it?

How deep is it?

Will it affect where you intend to build?

Could additional engineering or protection works be required?

These are not exciting questions during a property viewing.

But they can become expensive questions later.

Drainage Interpretation Plan (DIP)

The DIP helps us understand whether drainage reserves or future drainage schemes affect the property.

Again, this can influence how the land can be planned.

If you are only replacing the kitchen cabinets, some of these things may never matter to you.

If you want to substantially extend, reconstruct or rebuild the house, they can matter a lot.

Once I understand what the buyer wants to achieve, I stop looking at the house as a collection of bedrooms and bathrooms.

I start looking at what will get in the way of the future house.

And older landed houses can reveal quite a lot.

Those Columns in the Middle of the House

[Watch: What to look out for when viewing an older landed house]

Walk into some older landed houses and you may find three, four or even five columns within the internal floor plate.

Sometimes they are hidden within walls, so you barely notice them.

Until you start planning.

Today’s homeowners generally prefer much more open spaces.

You may want to walk through the front door and see all the way through the living and dining areas towards the rear.

Then you realise:

There is a column sitting right in the middle of where you want that open space.

One of the common questions we get is:

“Can we remove this column?”

Sometimes, yes.

But we need to investigate first.

A structural column cannot simply be hacked away because it is inconvenient.

We need to understand what it supports, the existing structural system and how the loads can be safely transferred if it is removed.

The solution may involve new beams, transfer structures, strengthening or introducing support elsewhere.

And that means cost.

So when I walk through an older property, I am not only looking at where the walls are.

I am thinking:

“If we open everything up, what is actually holding this house up?”

That tells me much more about how easily we can create the layout the buyer wants.

Those Two or Three Steps Can Also Matter

Another common feature in older landed houses is a split-level ground floor.

You walk through the living room.

Then there are two or three steps up to the dining area.

Perhaps the kitchen or rear of the house changes level again.

Some homeowners like this.

Others tell me immediately:

“I want everything on one level.”

That’s where it gets trickier.

Levelling an existing house is not always as simple as filling the lower area with concrete.

We need to understand the existing structure, floor and external levels, ceiling heights, staircase relationship, drainage and what happens to the rest of the house when one level changes.

For an intermediate terrace, there can be additional constraints because the property sits between two neighbouring houses.

A semi-detached house generally gives us more physical flexibility on the detached side, but even then I wouldn’t simply promise that the entire house can be levelled without first assessing it.

This is very much house by house.

If internal steps bother you, recognise that before buying.

Because solving them may require you to allocate more of your construction budget to something you initially thought was a very small issue.

Sometimes Your Feet Tell You More Than the Marble Does

This is another thing I pay attention to when viewing older landed houses, particularly semi-detached houses and corner terraces with larger outdoor aprons.

Walk around the house.

Don’t only look.

Feel the ground as you walk.

Does part of the external apron appear lower than the rest?

Is the slab uneven?

Are there cracks?

Has a gap developed between the apron and the main building?

Does the floor seem to slope?

Sometimes you can feel something similar inside an older house.

You walk across the second storey and think:

“Why does the floor feel slightly tilted?”

That is something worth investigating.

It does not automatically mean the structure has failed.

Unevenness can have different causes—settlement, movement, floor screed or finishes, original construction tolerances or potentially something more structural.

The important thing is not to diagnose it during a 20-minute viewing.

The important thing is to notice it.

Because if further investigation shows that rectification or structural works are required, that needs to be included in the budget.

For someone rebuilding the entire house, this may not materially change the plan.

But for someone who thought:

“I’ll buy this old house and set aside $700,000 to $800,000 to do it up,”

discovering that a meaningful part of that budget may have to go towards structural rectification can change the numbers very quickly.

That is money being spent before you even get to the new kitchen, bathrooms, flooring or finishes you actually wanted.

Sometimes your feet tell you more than the marble does.

This becomes particularly important for A&A.

Imagine an older house with a small attic.

The existing attic has beautiful timber flooring.

But your intention is to remove the existing roof, extend the attic slab and create a much larger usable floor.

Now ask yourself:

How much is that existing timber floor really worth to me?

Major roof and structural works may make preserving it impractical.

The same applies to marble.

Perhaps the seller spent a lot on it 20 years ago.

But what condition is it in today?

Is it stained?

Has moisture affected it?

Will our proposed structural works damage it anyway?

Does it even fit the future layout?

Something can have been very expensive when it was installed and still have very little value to your proposed project.

So I wouldn’t pay more for a house simply because the seller spent a lot renovating it.

I would pay attention to what I can actually use.

Look Up as Well

If you are planning substantial attic or roof works, the roof itself becomes another consideration.

Changing the roof can mean reviewing waterproofing, rainwater drainage and other associated systems.

Depending on the proposed works and the existing installation, the lightning protection system may also need to be altered or replaced.

Again, none of these things are particularly exciting during a viewing.

But eventually they appear somewhere in the construction budget.

Older landed houses were built around a very different level of electricity consumption.

Today’s homes may have larger air-conditioning systems, induction cooking, more appliances, home automation, EV charging, lifts, swimming-pool equipment and solar installations.

So I would want to understand the existing electrical supply and whether it is suitable for what the buyer eventually wants.

For substantial landed-home projects today, we would assess whether a 63A three-phase supply is appropriate rather than simply assuming the existing supply is enough.

And this is not necessarily a small item.

If the property requires an upgrade to a 63A three-phase electrical supply, I would tell a buyer to be prepared for something in the region of $80,000 or more, depending on the actual site conditions and requirements.

That is why I would rather know this before buying the house, rather than discovering it after the renovation or A&A budget has already been worked out.

An $80,000 item here, structural rectification there, roof works somewhere else—individually they may seem manageable.

But once several of them appear in the same old house, a budget that initially looked comfortable can disappear surprisingly quickly.

Don’t Just Ask How Many Square Feet the Land Is

Two properties can both be advertised as having approximately 2,000 sqft of land and still produce very different homes.

Because 2,000 sqft tells you the area. It doesn’t tell you the shape.

How wide is the frontage?

How deep is the plot?

Is it rectangular?

Does it taper?

For terrace houses especially, width can make a significant difference to how spaces eventually feel and how easily the internal layout works.

So don’t only ask:

“What’s the land size?”

Look at the actual dimensions.

Look Outside the Property Too

When I view a landed property, I don’t only look inside the gate.

I look at the road.

I look at the neighbouring houses.

I look at the driveway.

I look at how high or low the property sits relative to its surroundings.

If the house appears unusually low, I wouldn’t simply say:

“Never mind. We can raise it later.”

Perhaps we can.

But first I want to understand why it is at that level, the applicable requirements, and what changing it would mean for the rest of the property.

The same principle applies throughout this guide:

Don’t assume. Check first.

Older landed houses often have a history.

Perhaps a rear extension was added years ago.

Perhaps an attic was created.

Perhaps walls or structural elements were altered.

Perhaps the house has gone through several rounds of renovation.

If previous approved drawings or plans are available, they can be useful.

Because when we are planning substantial new works, I want to understand not only what I can see today, but what has happened to the house before we arrived.

This is probably the biggest thing I want landed buyers to understand.

A house can look terrible and still make sense.

Another house can look beautiful and still be the wrong house for what you intend to do.

Old tiles?

Easy to see.

Old kitchen?

Easy to see.

Bad paint?

Easy to see.

But what about:

Those things may not catch your attention during a viewing.

But they can matter much more to your eventual construction budget.

Imagine two landed houses on the same street.

Which one should you buy?

There isn’t enough information to answer that.

If you only intend to renovate, House B may save you a significant amount of work.

But if you intend to rebuild, House A may make just as much—or even more—sense if the underlying land and development potential suit what you want.

That’s why I don’t think the right question is:

“Which is the nicer house?”

It is:

“Which house makes more sense for what I intend to do?”

Before committing to a landed property, I would want to understand:

That last question can completely change how much a property is worth to you.

When you buy a landed property, you may be buying one of two things.

You may be buying the existing house.

Or you may be buying the potential of the property.

If you mainly want to renovate, the existing condition matters enormously.

If you are doing A&A, you need to understand what can realistically be retained and what your proposed works will affect.

If you intend to reconstruct or rebuild, the existing marble and carpentry may matter far less than the land, structure, constraints and what can eventually be built.

That is why, when I walk a property with a buyer, I don’t only ask:

“Is this a nice house?”

I would rather ask:

“Can this property become the home you actually want—and roughly what will it take to get there?”

Because the best time to find out is before you buy it.