Guides
Buying guides
These guides explain the rules that shape a property purchase in Singapore: the duties you pay, how much you can borrow, how payments are staged for a home still being built, and what changes when the property is an executive condominium, an industrial unit or a shop. Each one is written for buyers comparing projects in this directory, and each states the date its figures were checked against the government source that sets them.
Duties and tax
- Buyer's and additional buyer's stamp duty on a home: the rate bands, ABSD by buyer profile, refunds and deadlines.
- Seller's stamp duty on homes and industrial property: two separate schedules, and how the holding clock is counted.
Borrowing and paying
- Loan limits: TDSR, MSR and loan-to-value: the ratios banks must apply, the stress-test rate and tenure caps.
- The progressive payment scheme: each construction stage and the share of the price it carries.
- From preview to keys: the order of a new-launch purchase and the deadline at every step.
By property type
- Executive condominiums: eligibility, the CPF grant, the occupation period and full private status.
- Buying industrial property: B1 and B2 zoning, the 60:40 rule, JTC lease terms, GST and loans.
- Buying commercial property: offices, shops and medical suites, with GST, stamp duty and financing.
How to use them
Start with the guide closest to your purchase, then use the matching calculator from the calculators page to put your own figures through the same rules. Worked examples inside the guides use round, illustrative prices; they are never the price of a project in this directory.
The figures come from the agencies that set them: IRAS for stamp duty and GST, MAS for loan rules, HDB and CPF Board for executive condominiums, URA and JTC for planning and industrial land, and Singapore Statutes Online for the standard sale agreements. Rules change, sometimes at short notice, so check the linked source on the day you commit, and take advice from a lawyer or your bank on your own case.
When you are ready to compare projects, the directory lists every development in the guide, with filters for type, region and stage.
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