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June 28, 2023
How much cash do I need?
To finance a property in Singapore, you can use 3 different components Cash, CPF and bank loan.
You must exhaust all your cash first followed by all your CPF and then lastly the bank loan comes in.
To derive how much cash you need, simply take purchase price less off bank loan and CPF.
Here would be the breakdown of the Cash, CPF and bank loan, assuming you are are purchasing a new launch at $1 million as a Singaporean.
Events | % | Amount ($) | mode of financing | Things to note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Balloting Day – Option to Purchase (OTP) Granted | 5 | 50,000 | Cash | Mandatory min 5% cash. |
| Upon signing of Sales and Purchase Agreement (S&P) / Option-to-Purchase | 15 | 150,000 | Can be cash and/or CPF | Cash needed if CPF Funds is insufficient. |
| Balance 80% of Purchase Price upon completion of the property | 80 | 800,000 | Can be cash/CPF/bank loan | At this point no cash will be allowed unless its a full cash purchase. |
Click on the FAQ below to find out more
Under the MAS regulation, one is to exhaust all cash first, followed by CPF funds, finally the bank loan. To work out how much cash you need, take the purchase price less the loan and CPF. You will also need to factor in the stamp duties and legal fees if your CPF is not suffice to cover.
Cash = Purchase Price – Loan – CPF you have
Via Cash Component
If you have no existing home loan:
Your minimum cash downpayment is always 5% if the loan tenure doesn’t exceed 30 years and the borrower’s age doesn’t extends past age 65 during the loan’s maturity.
Your minimum cash downpayment is always 10% if the loan tenure exceeds 30 years OR the borrower’s age extends past age 65 during the loan’s maturity.
If you have at least one existing home loan:
Your minimum cash downpayment is always 25%.
Via Stamp Duty Component
Buyer Stamp duties rate applies to everyone:
Purchase Price or Market Value | BSD (residential) | BSD (non-residential) |
First S$180,000 | 1% | 1% |
Next S$180,000 | 2% | 2% |
Next S$640,000 | 3% | 3% |
Remaining Amount | 4% | 4% |
Additional Buyer Stamp duties rate applies to everyone:
Singapore Citizens (SC), Permanent Residents (PR) and foreigners
| Type of Buyer | On/after 6 Jul 2018 |
| Singaporean buying 1st Pty | 0% |
| Singaporean buying 2nd Pty | 12% |
| Singaporean buying 3rd Pty > | 15% |
| PR buying 1st Pty | 5% |
| PR buying 2nd and subsequent Pty | 15% |
| Foreigners buying any Pty | 20% |
| Entities buying any Pty | 25% |
With the ABSD rates above, a Singapore citizen who is buying his first residential property doesn’t need to pay anything. But if you’re purchasing a second home, you face a 12% tax. Assuming you intend to buy a S$1 million condo as your second house, you need to pay an Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty of S$120,000.
As for permanent residents (PR), they are required to fork out a 5% tax for their first home purchase, and 15% tax for the second and subsequent home purchases.
On the other hand, foreigners must pay a 20% Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty each time they purchase a residential property here. That means every time they buy a $1 million condo in Singapore, they need to pay S$200,000.
Nationals of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and the United States are considered as Singapore citizens when applying the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty.
Note that stamp duties are calculated based on the purchase price stated in the instrument to be stamped or the property’s market value, whichever is higher, and stamp duties are always round down to the nearest dollar.
Loan To Value (LTV) Component
Find out more here
It depends on the country’s restriction of funds flowing out.
you will need to cater for extra days to transfer the full amount of cash if the amount is very big.
For example, china’s daily restriction limit is $50,000 RMB per day.
No, You cannot, this is MAS regulation.
For payment to the developer, only Cheque and Cashier’s Order are allowed. Do check with the developer if they allow you to transfer to them directly. not all the developer will allow due to the fear of money laundering.
This is due to the law firm’s due diligence policy, they have a duty to file a STR (Suspicious transaction report) if the purchase of the property is finance from unknown sources. ie using other people cheque.
This is due to the law firm’s due diligence policy, they have a duty to file a STR (Suspicious transaction report) if the purchase of the property is finance from unknown sources.