Guide · Schools & property

MOE just killed the 1 km school premium. Is your property still worth it?

By Melissa Chan · From my YouTube video of 28 September 2026 · Updated 8 October 2026

If you bought near ACS, Nanyang, Raffles Girls' or one of the other popular schools because you thought living within 1 km was a guaranteed advantage, MOE has quietly pulled the rug out from under you. From the 2027 registration exercise, half the Phase 2C places at 12 schools no longer care whether you live 500 m away or 5 km away. Here's what changed, and what it means for your property.

Prefer to watch? This guide follows the video.

First, how P1 registration works

There are five phases:

• Phase 1: a brother or sister is already studying at the school.
• Phase 2A: a real tie to the school: a parent is a former student, a staff member or on the school's advisory or management committee, or the child is in the school's MOE Kindergarten.
• Phase 2B: parent volunteers, active grassroots leaders, or families connected through a church or clan association linked to the school.
• Phase 2C: open to everyone, no connection needed. This is the phase most families are competing in.
• Phase 2C Supplementary: the safety net for any child still without a place.

More detail on each phase and MOE's address rules is on my P1 registration page.

What actually changed

Phase 2C goes from 40 reserved places to 60 at almost every school, except those with a P1 intake of fewer than 180. On its own, that simply means more places for families without a connection to the school.

It sits on top of a rule that isn't changing: any places left over after Phase 2A are already split one third to Phase 2B and two thirds to Phase 2C. So Phase 2C was already getting the lion's share of the leftover places, and now it gets a bigger reserve on top.

The 12 schools: Anglo-Chinese School (Junior), Anglo-Chinese School (Primary), CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Methodist Girls' School (Primary), Nanyang Primary, Ngee Ann Primary, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, Raffles Girls' Primary, Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary, St. Margaret's School (Primary), Tanjong Katong Primary and Tao Nan School.

MOE published a worked example. Say a school has 65 Singapore Citizen applicants in Phase 2C:

• The beyond 2 km track has 30 places for 25 applicants, so all 25 get in, with 5 places left over.
• Those 5 places flow across to the within 2 km track, which now has 35 places for 40 applicants.
• That's still oversubscribed, so it goes to a ballot, and only 35 of the 40 nearby families get a place.

Read that again: you can live right next to the school and still lose the ballot.

Why MOE is doing this

MOE says some primary schools have a mix of students that simply mirrors their immediate neighbourhood. Under the old system, priority came down to citizenship and then home-to-school distance, so if you couldn't afford to live within 1 or 2 km of a school, you effectively couldn't get your child in. After consulting parents, school leaders and alumni associations, the common thread was to keep schools open to families from different backgrounds, while recognising that places are finite.

Put simply, MOE is trying to give families access to sought-after schools even if they can't afford to live near one. The part the press release won't spell out, but which matters for anyone thinking about property: it reduces how much the private housing market can act as a gatekeeper to a good school. For years the strategy was simple: buy within 1 km and get near-guaranteed priority. That's what pushed prices up around these schools. Break that mechanic, and you take away a big part of the reason people paid the premium.

What did the 1 km premium look like?

To put a number on it, I compared two projects in the Bukit Timah area that launched around the same time:

That's a gap of roughly $150 to $200 psf for being inside the 1 km line. To be clear, this is about ten transactions on each side, so treat it as an illustration of what the market was pricing in, not a scientific average across both projects. But the pattern was consistent: buyers paid a real premium for the school distance advantage, and that's exactly the mechanic this policy dismantles at these 12 schools.

So the question isn't whether the premium existed. It clearly did. The question is whether it's still worth paying, now that being within 1 km no longer gets you anything the family at 1.9 km doesn't also get.

Who comes out ahead

Buyers for the 2027 or 2028 registration who are willing to look 1 to 2 km from one of these 12 schools, instead of insisting on 1 km. Here's the number that makes the case:

• Leedon Green, within 1 km of Nanyang Primary, has been transacting at about $3,000 to $3,500 psf.
• Hyll on Holland, just outside 1 km, has been transacting at about $2,800 psf.

That's a gap of up to about $600 psf between two freehold developments in the same general pocket. Under the old rules the gap made sense, because being within 1 km was your best shot at Nanyang. Under the Two-Track Scheme, everyone within 2 km is in the same pool, whether at 900 m or 1.9 km. A buyer today could choose Hyll on Holland, save up to about $600 psf, still be a short drive from the school, and have exactly the same chance as the Leedon Green owner who paid the premium.

That's the opportunity: buying in the 1 to 2 km ring without paying for a 1 km guarantee that no longer exists.

Who loses out

1. Anyone buying today mainly to be within 1 km of one of these 12 schools for the 2027 or 2028 exercise. The guarantee you'd be paying for doesn't exist any more, so you'd be paying a premium for an advantage that's already gone.
2. Owners already living within 1 km purely for the school. This is the group it stings most. You paid the premium, and the part of your home's value tied to school proximity may no longer command the price that justified paying above market.
3. Possibly, parents relying on alumni priority in Phase 2A. This is my own reading, and MOE hasn't said it. The extra 20 places for Phase 2C have to come from somewhere. Not from Phase 1, because siblings are always admitted, and Phase 2B is a much smaller pool. That leaves Phase 2A (alumni, staff and kindergarten families) as the phase most likely to feel the squeeze.

The winners nobody is talking about

Families living beyond 2 km. You no longer need to move, or buy near the school, just to get a fair shot. Whether you're 3 km away or on the other side of the island, your chances in the beyond-2 km track are the same. Distance doesn't rule you out before you've even tried.

One example: Dunearn House was sold with no primary schools within 1 km, so buyers weren't paying any school premium. Under the Two-Track Scheme, its owners fall in the within-2 km track for both Methodist Girls' School (Primary) and Raffles Girls' Primary. A development with no school advantage at launch has effectively gained access to two of the most sought-after schools on the list, without owners paying for it.

And the real strategic shift: register first, decide on moving later.

• You can try for a place without paying a property premium upfront. There's no pressure to buy near the school while your child is still a toddler.
• Your capital stays flexible, instead of being tied up for years in an expensive home bought on an outcome you don't know yet.
• You only decide whether to move closer once a place is confirmed. To exaggerate: even if you live in Pasir Ris and the school you want is in Bukit Timah, you now have the same chance in the beyond-2 km track, with no distance penalty. Only if your child gets in do you need to decide whether moving closer makes sense for day-to-day life.
• Lower regret: if your child doesn't get in, you're not left holding an expensive property that no longer serves the one purpose you bought it for.

What happens after 2027?

MOE says the list of 12 schools will be reviewed from time to time, and it doesn't expect frequent changes. Two outcomes seem realistic to me:

1. The scheme expands to more schools. The profile is simple: schools where public housing makes up less than 40% of the homes within 2 km. As new housing comes up across Singapore, the mix around some schools can shift, so the list isn't fixed. I'd rather not name schools, because a single large development can change a neighbourhood's profile within a few years.
2. It's scrapped, if it doesn't achieve what MOE hopes for, or the ballot results cause too much pushback. I think this is the less likely of the two: policies like this usually get refined and expanded rather than reversed.

Either way, if you're planning for 2028, 2029 or beyond, don't assume today's list of 12 is final. Build in some flexibility.

Bringing it together

This isn't just a schooling policy update. It's a real shift in how the property market has priced school proximity for years.

• If you own a home within 1 km of one of these schools and you're counting on that premium, it's worth re-evaluating what it's really worth today.
• If you're buying for 2027 and beyond, there's a real opportunity in the 1 to 2 km ring, and perhaps even beyond 2 km.

For the latest places and ballot results at schools near the launches I cover, see my school pages.

Questions people ask me

Which schools are in the Two-Track Scheme?

Twelve, from the 2027 exercise: Anglo-Chinese School (Junior) and (Primary), CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Methodist Girls' School (Primary), Nanyang Primary, Ngee Ann Primary, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary, Raffles Girls' Primary, Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary, St. Margaret's School (Primary), Tanjong Katong Primary and Tao Nan School. Each has its own page with recent balloting in my school pages. ACS (Primary) is also due to move to Tengah and become co-ed in 2030.

Does living within 1 km still help at these 12 schools?

Not in Phase 2C. Everyone within 2 km is in the same track, with no priority between 500 m and 1.9 km; within each track, citizens come first and then it's a ballot.

When does the change start?

From the 2027 P1 registration exercise, for children starting Primary 1 in 2028.

What about every other primary school?

Distance priority stays as it is: citizens within 1 km first, then 1 to 2 km, then beyond. Schools with a P1 intake of 180 or more reserve 60 Phase 2C places instead of 40.

Is it still worth paying a premium to live within 1 km of one of these schools?

For these 12 schools, the Phase 2C advantage of living within 1 km rather than 1 to 2 km is gone, so you'd be paying for something the family at 1.9 km also gets. Elsewhere, the 1 km priority still matters.

Will the list of 12 schools change?

MOE says it will review the list from time to time. The schools chosen are those where public housing makes up less than 40% of homes within 2 km, so the list could grow as neighbourhoods change.

Related guides

• Schools and P1 registration: every primary school's balloting
• OCR hits $3,000 psf: what still works in resale
• The next 6 months could be a trap for buyers

Sources: Ministry of Education, changes to the P1 registration framework from the 2027 exercise (60 Phase 2C places; the Two-Track Scheme and its worked example). Transaction prices are approximate, from a sample of about ten transactions per project, as an illustration; they are not an average for the whole project. This guide is general information, not financial advice; check your phase and distance category with MOE and OneMap in your registration year.