Singapore property rules, with the arithmetic shown

Why these pages exist

Singapore’s property rules are published, precise and freely available. What is hard is finding the version that applies to your dates, and seeing the arithmetic rather than a conclusion. Most of what is written about these rules online is a summary of a summary, and some of it describes rules that have since changed.

So each page here is built the same way: the question as people actually ask it, the rule with the date it took effect, a worked example with every step of the arithmetic shown, the specific facts that would change the answer, and links to the official IRAS, HDB, CPF Board, MND and MAS pages so you can check the figures against the source rather than against us.

These are the same rules Dex works from. Where a page here has to assume something — a citizenship, a loan type, a purchase route — Dex asks you instead.

The rules

• Effective 28 July 2026

  The 15-month HDB wait-out was abolished

  Private property owners can buy a non-subsidised resale flat with no wait. What survived, and the ABSD trap the change creates.

• ABSD rates since 27 April 2023

  Should I sell first or buy first?

  Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty counts what you own when the contract is executed. On a S$1,800,000 purchase, the order decides S$360,000.

• Current schedule effective 4 July 2025

  Seller's Stamp Duty: which holding period applies

  Two schedules are live at once, and the one that governs you was fixed on the day you bought. HDB flats are in scope.

• Basic Retirement Sum: 2026 cohort

  How much CPF can I use for my home?

  The Valuation Limit, and the 120% ceiling that is set by your lender rather than by what you are buying.

• Grant schedule from 20 August 2024

  HDB grants and the resale-only rule

  Enhanced CPF Housing Grant tables in full, the four Proximity Housing Grant amounts, and the rule that decides S$110,000.

What these pages will not do

They will not tell you whether a property is a good buy, predict what prices will do, or promise a return. They state published rules and show the arithmetic. They are general information rather than financial or legal advice, and a page cannot know the facts of your situation — which is exactly why every one of them ends by naming the facts that would change its answer.