About the buyers
Used by the buying calculators below. Example figures shown; replace them with yours.
Loan based on
$
From the bank's IPA. For an HDB loan, the HFE letter.As stated in the IPA
How much they can borrow and buy
New Launch condo (building under construction)
You pay in stages as the building goes up. The loan is drawn bit by bit, so the monthly instalment starts small and climbs until TOP.
The unit
$
$
How a New Launch purchase works
- Option to Purchase (OTP): pay 5% of the price to book the unit. This must be cash.
- Sales and Purchase Agreement: the developer sends it within 2 weeks. You have 3 weeks to sign it (exercise).
- Stamp duty: Buyer's Stamp Duty (and ABSD if it applies) is due within 14 days of signing, about 7 weeks after the option.
- Balance downpayment: the next 15% is due within 8 weeks of the OTP. Cash or CPF.
- Progressive payments: 10% at foundation, 10% at structure, 5% each at walls, ceiling, electrical and plumbing, and roads and car park, 25% at TOP, 15% at legal completion (CSC). This is the Normal Payment Scheme.
- Your bank pays the stages once your downpayment (normally 25%) is used up. With a 75% loan, you pay the first half of the foundation stage and the bank pays the rest. The instalment is worked out on the amount drawn so far, so it steps up at each stage.
- Your monthly CPF goes toward the instalment. Early on it usually covers it in full, so CPF builds up before TOP.
- Selling within 4 years of buying attracts Seller's Stamp Duty (16% in year 1, down to 4% in year 4).
- Stage dates here are estimates spread between your option date and TOP. If you buy after some stages are done, those stages are payable straight away.
Private Resale (completed condo or landed)
A completed home is paid in full at completion, about 8 to 12 weeks after the option. The full loan starts at once.
The home
$
$
Tops up to 5% in total
$
How a private Resale purchase works
- Option fee: usually 1% of the price, in cash, for the seller's Option to Purchase.
- Exercise the option within the option period (usually 14 days, or as agreed) by topping up to 5% in cash. You now have a binding contract.
- Stamp duty is due within 14 days of exercising.
- Completion is usually 8 to 12 weeks after the option. The other 20% of the downpayment (cash or CPF) and the bank loan are paid to the seller, and you get the keys.
- The bank lends on the lower of price or valuation. Anything paid above valuation must come from your own cash or CPF.
- Minimum cash: 5% of the price for a first home loan, 25% if you already have a home loan.
HDB Resale flat
Grants go into your CPF and pay part of the flat. An HDB loan lends up to 75%; a bank loan also lends up to 75% but needs 5% in cash. Anything above HDB's valuation is paid in cash.
The flat
$
$
$
Enhanced CPF Housing Grant, if the letter shows oneUntil HDB accepts the application
HDB loan: 2.6%
Plus 9% GST. 0 if none
$
How buying an HDB Resale flat works
- Get an HFE letter before you take an option. It takes up to 21 working days and lasts 9 months.
- Option to Purchase: option fee $1 to $1,000 in cash. You have 21 days to exercise it. Option fee plus exercise deposit is at most $5,000.
- Request for value ($120) and submit the resale application after exercising.
- HDB accepts the application, usually about 30 days after the option is exercised. Buyer and seller then endorse the resale documents online.
- Completion about 8 weeks after acceptance, so roughly 3 to 4 months after the option.
- Cash over valuation (COV) must be paid in cash. Loans and CPF only cover up to the HDB valuation.
- Grants for first-timers: CPF Housing Grant $80,000 (up to 4-room) or $50,000 (5-room+), Enhanced Grant up to $120,000, Proximity Grant $20,000 or $30,000.
- Minimum Occupation Period of 5 years before you can sell or buy private property.
Upgrading from private to private
Your sale frees up cash and refunds CPF to your account. Selling first avoids ABSD. Buying first means paying ABSD up front and claiming it back after you sell.
Upgrading
Order
New home
Saved clients
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Saves the buyers' details at the top and everything on this tab. Tap Open to bring a client's numbers back.
Dates (without ABSD)
No second-home ABSD if your buyer exercises the option on your old home before you exercise on the new one. These dates also decide when your sale money arrives.
Selling your current home
From the option date
Buying the new home
Usually 14
From the option date
Your current private home
$
$
Each owner's CPF goes back to their own account
Since CPF was first used, for the interest
$
Principal plus any housing grant$
$
Principal plus any housing grant$
$
$
Paid after your buyer exercisesFor Seller's Stamp Duty
The new private home: New Launch
$
$
How upgrading works
- HDB owners finish the Minimum Occupation Period (5 years for most flats) before selling or buying private.
- When you sell, the buyer's money first clears your home loan. CPF you used, plus the interest it would have earned (2.5% a year), goes back to your CPF Ordinary Account. What is left is cash.
- Money from your buyer: the option fee (1% for a private home, up to $1,000 for HDB) is paid to you, so you can use it straight away. The exercise fee usually goes to your lawyer's conveyancing account and is released at completion, but you can ask for it to be paid to you directly. Either way it can go towards the option and exercise fees on your next home. Legal fees for the sale are paid after your buyer exercises; legal fees for the purchase are paid when you exercise.
- Seller's Stamp Duty applies when you sell a private home within 4 years of buying it: 16%, 12%, 8% or 4% of the price for homes bought from 4 Jul 2025 (12%, 8% or 4% within 3 years for homes bought from 11 Mar 2017 to 3 Jul 2025). HDB flats have no SSD.
- Sell first: no ABSD on the new home. An HDB Resale takes about 3 to 4 months from option to completion, a private sale about 8 to 12 weeks. Your CPF refund lands a few weeks after completion. HDB sellers can ask for up to 3 months' extension of stay.
- Buy first, but sold first on paper: IRAS counts a home as sold, and a new one as bought, on the date the option is exercised. If your buyer exercises the option on your old home (private or HDB) before you exercise on the new one, you own only one home when you buy, so there is no second-home ABSD, even though the sale completes later.
- Buy first: otherwise you own two homes for a while, so ABSD is payable (20% for Singapore Citizens). A married couple with at least one Singapore Citizen buying together gets it refunded if they sell the first home within 6 months of buying a completed home, or within 6 months of TOP for a New Launch.
- Bridging loan: a short loan that pays the downpayment on your new home while you wait for your sale money. You need a buyer who has exercised the option on your current home. Banks lend up to your expected sale cash and CPF refund, for up to 6 months, at about 4.9% to 5.75% a year (2026). Interest is paid monthly or added on and paid when the sale completes, and the whole loan is repaid from your sale money. Your new home loan still has to pass the 55% debt limit.
- Buying first with a home loan still owing, if your buyer has not exercised yet, cuts the new bank loan to 45% and raises the minimum cash to 25%, and your current instalment counts against your income limit.
Selling your private home
Selling
Your private home
$
$
Each owner's CPF goes back to their own account
Since CPF was first used, for the interest
$
Principal plus any housing grant$
$
Principal plus any housing grant$
Plus 9% GST
$
$
Only if your bank loan is still in its lock-in period, often 1.5% of the loanSale dates
From the option date
How selling works
- HDB flats can be sold once the 5-year Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) is over, counted from the day you got the keys. HDB flats have no Seller's Stamp Duty.
- Option to Purchase: for an HDB flat the buyer pays an option fee of $1 to $1,000 and has 21 calendar days to exercise; the option and exercise fees together are at most $5,000. A private home usually takes a 1% option fee, 14 days to exercise, and 4% more on exercise.
- After the buyer exercises, an HDB sale goes through the HDB Resale Portal: you and the buyer each submit your part within 7 days of each other, HDB accepts the application, and completion is about 8 weeks after acceptance, so roughly 3 to 4 months from the option. A private sale usually completes 8 to 12 weeks after the option.
- At completion the buyer's money first pays off your home loan (and any lock-in penalty). Next, the CPF you used, including any housing grant, goes back to your CPF Ordinary Account with the 2.5% a year interest it would have earned. Then the agent fee (plus 9% GST) and legal fees are paid. The rest is cash to you.
- If the sale can't refund all your CPF, you don't have to top it up as long as you sell at market value.
- Seller's Stamp Duty applies when you sell a private home within 4 years of buying it: 16%, 12%, 8% or 4% of the price for homes bought from 4 Jul 2025, or 12%, 8% or 4% within 3 years for homes bought from 11 Mar 2017 to 3 Jul 2025. It is due within 14 days of the sale.
- Extension of stay: HDB sellers can ask the buyer for up to 3 months after completion to move out. CPF refunds usually show in your account a few weeks after completion.
Decoupling a private home
One owner buys out the other's share. The owner who leaves then owns no home, so their next home counts as a first home and Singapore Citizens pay no ABSD on it. See what decoupling costs, what each owner ends up with, and whether the staying owner's income can carry the loan alone.
Home
Decoupling dates
The leaving owner should only buy the next home after the share transfer completes.
From signing, usually 8 to 12
The home
$
Bank valuationUsually 50
$
For Seller's Stamp Duty
Leaving owner (sells their share)
$
To show the ABSD saved$
Principal, this owner only$
From their CPF statement, or leave blankStaying owner (keeps the home)
Loan based on
$
From the staying owner's IPAAs stated in the IPA
$
Add 70% of bonus, averaged monthly$
$
$
$
Two law firms and a valuationHow decoupling works
- What it is: one co-owner sells their share of the home to the other at market value. The leaving owner then owns no home, so their next purchase is a first home for ABSD: 0% instead of 20% for Singapore Citizens, 5% instead of 30% for Permanent Residents.
- HDB flats can't be decoupled. HDB only allows a change of ownership without a sale in specific situations, such as marriage, divorce or the death of an owner.
- Stamp duty: the staying owner pays Buyer's Stamp Duty (1% to 6%) on the higher of the price and the market value of the share. IRAS bases ABSD on the transfer on the homes the staying owner already owns; with no other home, a Singapore Citizen pays none.
- CPF: the CPF the leaving owner used goes back to their Ordinary Account with 2.5% a year accrued interest, out of their share of the money. At market value, any shortfall does not need a cash top-up.
- The loan: the staying owner takes a new loan in their own name that pays off the current loan. It must pass the 55% debt limit (tested at 4%) on their income alone. The bank lends up to 75% of the share price on top of their own part of the current loan, and at least 5% of the share price is paid in cash.
- Seller's Stamp Duty: if the home was bought less than 4 years ago (3 years for homes bought from 11 Mar 2017 to 3 Jul 2025), the leaving owner pays SSD on the share.
- Timing: completion is usually 8 to 12 weeks after signing. The leaving owner should exercise an option on the next home only after the transfer completes, and buy it in their own name.
- It must be genuine. IRAS can disregard an arrangement made mainly to avoid ABSD (Section 33A of the Stamp Duties Act), such as buying 99-to-1 and transferring the 1% soon after, and recover the ABSD with a surcharge. Get advice from a conveyancing lawyer.
Rules used in these numbers
Checked 5 Oct 2026. Policies change; confirm before signing. Tap a rule to open it.
Buyer's Stamp Duty
| First $180,000 | 1% |
| Next $180,000 | 2% |
| Next $640,000 | 3% |
| Next $500,000 | 4% |
| Next $1,500,000 | 5% |
| Above $3,000,000 | 6% |
Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd+ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Citizen | 0% | 20% | 30% |
| PR | 5% | 30% | 35% |
| Foreigner | 60% | 60% | 60% |
Bank loan limits
| Loans owing | Max loan | Min cash |
|---|---|---|
| None | 75% (55%) | 5% (10%) |
| One | 45% (25%) | 25% |
| Two or more | 35% (15%) | 25% |
Brackets apply if the loan runs past age 65 or beyond 30 years (25 for HDB flats). Max tenure: 35 years private, 30 years HDB flat.
Loan years shown as "normal" are 65 minus age, up to 30 (25 for HDB). Agent fees include 9% GST. CPF accrued interest is 2.5% a year.
Income limits
| Total Debt Servicing Ratio | 55% |
| Mortgage Servicing Ratio (HDB, new EC) | 30% |
| Test rate, bank loans | 4% |
| Test rate, HDB loan | 3% |
| HDB loan: max 75%, rate | 2.6% |
| HDB loan max tenure | 25 yrs |
Seller's Stamp Duty (private)
| Sold within 1 year | 16% |
| Within 2 years | 12% |
| Within 3 years | 8% |
| Within 4 years | 4% |
For homes bought on or after 4 Jul 2025.
Enhanced CPF Housing Grant
| Family income | Grant |
|---|
Sources: IRAS stamp duty · MAS housing loan rules · HDB grants and loans · CPF housing
Not covered: BTO flats, CPF valuation and withdrawal limits, older leases (CPF use and loans are reduced if the lease does not last to age 95), Executive Condos, deferred payment schemes, and bank fees.