Financing a new launch

Researched and written 2026-09-29 15:25 SGT · 15 sources listed at the end · draft 1 · figures verified against the named sources on the date shown; where a source has since moved, the element carries a marker.

If you are buying a new private home from a developer before it is built, you do not borrow the price on day one. You pay in stages as the building goes up, and the bank lends in the same stages. That single fact changes what you draw down, when you draw it, what it costs while the building is a hole in the ground, and which interest-rate tables are relevant to you. This page is written for that buyer. It is not a resale page: a fixed-rate table for a completed flat is largely noise to you, because banks offer floating rates only on a building-under-construction loan and fixed packages become available at TOP. [⚠ buc.loan.fixed_available: sources differ; awaiting a ruling]

Everything below is dated. Where I could read the government source this run I say so; where I could not, I say that too, and the figure rests on the ledger's earlier reads or on a commercial guide. Nothing here is advice on your particular case, and figures marked as my arithmetic are illustrations on ledger rates, not a bank quote. Page compiled 29 September 2026.

The short answer

• You pay a 5% booking fee in cash when you take the option, and reach 20% of the price when you exercise it and sign. The ledger records this from the standard Option and Sale and Purchase forms under the Housing Developers Rules.
• After that you pay the developer in instalments as each construction stage is certified: on the commonly quoted ten-stage schedule, 5% to 10% per stage through foundation, frame, walls, roof, windows and car parks, then 25% at TOP and 15% at completion.
• Your own money (cash, plus CPF where allowed) covers the first 25% if you borrow at the 75% loan-to-value ceiling. The bank pays the rest stage by stage, and you pay interest only on what it has actually disbursed.
• Stamp duty is a separate cash event, due within 14 days of signing the contract, and any additional buyer's stamp duty is paid in cash first.
• The loan is floating for the build. Rate, timing and the four-year seller's stamp duty clock all run from your signature, not from the day you get keys.

The mechanics: what you draw, and when

A licensed developer selling units in a project of more than four units must use the Option to Purchase and Sale and Purchase Agreement prescribed under the Housing Developers Rules. URA's page on the standard option and agreement, last updated 11 June 2026, says developers must use the prescribed forms and that the Controller has pre-approved a list of amendments developers may adopt without further approval. It does not give the fee, the validity or the payment schedule, so those figures below come from the ledger's reading of the Rules' forms.

Step 1: the option

The booking fee is 5% of the price, paid in cash. The option is open for a short window (the ledger records three weeks from Form 2 clause 3.1), and exercising it brings the total paid to 20%. If you do not exercise, the ledger records that the developer keeps 25% of the booking fee (clause 5.1). On a S$2,000,000 unit, that is S$100,000 at booking, and S$25,000 at risk if you walk away inside the window. The 20% is S$400,000. CPF cannot pay the option fee; it can pay legal fees and stamp duty.

Step 2: the progress payments

The ledger holds PropKaki's ten-stage schedule, as a percentage of the purchase price: booking 5, sale and purchase agreement 15, foundation 10, reinforced-concrete frame 10, partition walls 5, roofing and ceiling 5, door and window frames with wiring and plumbing 5, car parks roads and drains 5, TOP 25, then 15 at the Certificate of Statutory Completion (CSC) and legal completion. That sums to 100. The clock is roughly 24 to 36 months of construction to TOP, then up to a year more to CSC and legal completion: three to four years from booking to the end.

Here is what that means for a S$2,000,000 unit, as my arithmetic. Cumulative amount due, and how much of it the bank has funded if you put in the first 25% yourself and borrow the 75% maximum:

• Booking (5%): S$100,000 cumulative. Bank: nil.
• Agreement signed (15%): S$400,000 cumulative. Bank: nil.
• Foundation (10%): S$600,000. The first S$100,000 of this call completes your 25% (S$500,000); the bank funds S$100,000.
• Reinforced-concrete frame (10%): S$800,000. Bank drawn: S$300,000.
• Partition walls (5%): S$900,000. Bank drawn: S$400,000.
• Roofing and ceiling (5%): S$1,000,000. Bank drawn: S$500,000.
• Doors, windows, wiring, plumbing (5%): S$1,100,000. Bank drawn: S$600,000.
• Car parks, roads, drains (5%): S$1,200,000. Bank drawn: S$700,000.
• TOP (25%): S$1,700,000. Bank drawn: S$1,200,000.
• CSC and legal completion (15%): S$2,000,000. Bank drawn: S$1,500,000, the full loan.

One caution on that arithmetic. Redbrick Mortgage Advisory (18 March 2025) describes the order as cash first, then CPF, then the bank loan, with the 5% option fee in cash and the rest of a 20% downpayment in cash or CPF, and says loan repayment and interest start at the first disbursement and are based on the amount drawn to date, not the full loan. MAS's limit for a first housing loan is 75%, which implies a 25% downpayment, so who funds the slice between 20% and 25% is a question for your bank. I did not find a source that settles it. Ask for the bank's own drawdown table before you exercise the option.

The splits are also disputed at the end of the schedule. Redbrick describes bank disbursements from 5% at the option stage to 25% at TOP and a final 15% at CSC. Homejourney (22 February 2026) lists booking 5%, agreement 15 to 20%, foundation 5 to 10%, frame 10%, walls 5%, roofing 5%, windows and services 5%, car park and drains 5%, TOP 25%, CSC 5 to 15%. LovelyHomes gives a seven-stage version: 5 / 15 / 45 for construction / 25 / 10. A search-result summary of a 99.co guide splits the final tranche as 15% at TOP and 10% at key collection, which conflicts with the 25% and 15% above; I could not open that page. Your contract governs. Read the payment schedule in it line by line and rebuild the table above with your numbers.

On the last 15%, a search-result summary of URA's Home Buyer's Guide (5 September 2025) says the buyer first makes the payment due at the CSC stage, 8% to the developer and 5% to be held by the Singapore Academy of Law, and then a final 2% to the developer when the Completion Date payment notice is served after CSC. That adds to 15% and agrees with the ten-stage schedule, and it means that a part of your last payment is held, not handed over. The guide PDF returned 404 when I opened it this run, so I am relying on the summary. What the held 5% is held against I did not find, and I will not guess.

TOP, CSC and what protects the money in between

TOP lets residents collect keys and move in while the developer continues some work; CSC is issued once all the building requirements are met. URA's page on buying uncompleted private residential property (last updated 29 June 2026) says that once TOP is issued and you have paid the progress payment due on TOP, the developer will tell you how to collect keys. The ledger records a 12-month defects liability period, and guides disagree on when it starts: from key collection or the vacant possession date, whichever is earlier, on one reading; from the 15th day after you receive the documents, on another. Read your own agreement.

Two protections are worth knowing about. A licensed developer must keep a project account and may withdraw from it only for that project's costs; that is a search-result summary of the Project Account Rules, and I did not open the Statutes Online page. Separately, the standard agreement carries late-delivery damages, which the ledger records as 10% a year; I have not read the clause, so I cannot tell you what that percentage is applied to. Neither protects you from your own loan going wrong.

Eligibility: who can sign, who can borrow

For a private condominium sold by a developer, nothing in the ledger bars you on citizenship. Foreign persons may buy a condominium unit without approval from the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), and the Residential Property Act does not restrict a foreigner buying a flat or condo. Landed units are a different regime, and the strata-landed position is disputed between sources; see the strata-landed page before you assume.

Eligibility to sign is the easy part. Eligibility to borrow is where buyers fail. MAS's loan tenure and loan-to-value page (last updated 27 March 2024, fetched this run) sets the ceiling by how many housing loans you already have outstanding, and the ledger records the same limits: 75% with no outstanding loan and at least 5% in cash, 45% with one and 25% in cash, and 35% with two or more. A lower ceiling applies if the tenure runs past 30 years or the loan period runs beyond age 65: 55% for a first loan. The maximum tenure is 35 years for non-HDB property.

If you already own an HDB flat, HDB's rule is that you cannot acquire private residential property until the flat's Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) has ended, which is five years for Standard flats and ten for Plus and Prime. A new launch is the standard upgrader's route because the six-month ABSD clock starts late: see the taxes section.

If it is an executive condominium, not a private launch

An executive condominium (EC) is a different product with different money. At least one applicant must be a Singapore Citizen with another Citizen or PR; the option fee is 5% and the balance of the downpayment 15%. On 8 May 2026 the MOP was lengthened from five to ten years and privatisation from ten to fifteen; the Deferred Payment Scheme is no longer offered on sites tendered on or after that date; and the household income ceiling went from 16 to 18 (thousand dollars a month, as I read the ledger) from 24 August 2026. While the EC MOP runs, the mortgage servicing ratio caps your mortgage at 30% of gross monthly income. That is not the same test as a private buyer's. See the executive condominium page.

Citizenship status: the same purchase, four bills

Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) depends on who you are and how many residential properties you already own. The rates in the ledger have been unchanged since 27 April 2023. IRAS's own pages on BSD and ABSD rendered navigation only when I fetched them on 29 September 2026, so the rates below rest on the ledger's earlier reads, not on a page I read today.

Singapore Citizens

A Citizen pays 0% on a first property, 20% on a second and 30% on a third. On a S$2,000,000 unit a Citizen buying a first home pays no ABSD; a Citizen who already owns one property pays S$400,000, in cash, within 14 days. A married couple with at least one Citizen can have that second-property ABSD refunded if they dispose of the existing property inside the window: IRAS's rule is six months from the date of purchase, or from TOP or CSC on an uncompleted purchase. Guides disagree on the exact trigger for a completed purchase; for a building under construction they agree it runs from TOP or CSC, whichever is earlier. That late start is why BUC suits an HDB upgrader: you can sign today and hold two properties for years before the clock starts. The deadline has no extension.

Singapore PRs

A PR pays 5% on a first property, 30% on a second and 35% on a third. On S$2,000,000 that is S$100,000 for a first home and S$600,000 for a second. The BSD is separate and applies to everyone.

Foreigners, and nationals of the free-trade partners

A foreigner pays 60%: S$1,200,000 on S$2,000,000, plus BSD. IRAS's rule, as the ledger records it, is that nationals of the United States, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland are treated as Citizens for ABSD. That treatment is obtained by remission application on the IRAS myTax Portal; it is not automatic on the bill. A US green-card holder who is not a US national does not qualify. A US citizen who is also a Singapore PR is charged at the SC rate for the number of properties owned. What I could not establish is whether an FTA buyer must pay the full 60% at signing and claim it back, or whether the remission can be arranged first. Ask your lawyer in writing before you sign, because the difference is S$1.2m of cash for weeks on this example.

Foreigners cannot use CPF, so the whole downpayment is cash, and banks in practice offer 60 to 70% loan-to-value depending on income source, against the 75% MAS ceiling. Banks also discount foreign-currency and variable income before they apply TDSR. On S$2,000,000, a foreigner at 60% ABSD, before any FTA remission, needs S$400,000 at signing plus S$1,200,000 ABSD plus S$69,600 BSD: about S$1.67m within weeks, before any loan draws. That is my arithmetic.

Taxes: BSD, ABSD, SSD, property tax and rental income

BSD and ABSD: due at signing, not at completion

Buyer's Stamp Duty is 1% on the first S$180,000, 2% on the next S$180,000, 3% on the next S$640,000, 4% on the next S$500,000, 5% on the next S$1,500,000 and 6% on the remainder. On S$2,000,000 that is S$69,600. Both BSD and ABSD are payable within 14 days of the date of the signed contract, with a penalty of up to four times the unpaid duty. On a BUC purchase the contract is the sale and purchase agreement, so the duty lands in the first weeks, three to four years before you have a building. Legal fees and stamp duty can be paid from CPF ordinary account savings; ABSD is paid in cash first and then reimbursed from CPF subject to CPF's terms, according to an Ask IRAS excerpt in the ledger.

SSD: the clock starts at signing

Seller's Stamp Duty applies if you sell within four years: 16% in year one, 12% in year two, 8% in year three, 4% in year four, on the higher of the selling price and market value. Since 4 July 2025 the holding period is four years, not three. The point for a BUC buyer is that the holding period for a building under construction runs from the date of the sale and purchase agreement, according to search-result summaries of IRAS Ask that I could not open. With three to four years to CSC, the SSD period ends around when you finish paying. On a S$2,000,000 sale, that is S$320,000, S$240,000, S$160,000 or S$80,000 by year, my arithmetic on the ledger's rates.

Whether and on what terms you may sell a building-under-construction unit before TOP, and the cost of doing so, I did not find in any source this run. Do not plan on it without asking your lawyer.

Property tax, and the gain

Property tax is assessed from the TOP date, and IRAS bills the first tax within about a year of TOP. Owner-occupier rates are granted to one property only; a vacant residential property gets no relief and is taxed at the non-owner-occupier rates, which the ledger has starting at 12%. Gains on a property sale are generally not taxed unless you are trading, in which case IRAS treats it as income; Singapore has no general capital gains tax.

Rental income

If you let the unit after TOP, rent is taxable. You may claim 15% of gross rent as deemed expenses or your actual expenses; loan interest on a property bought to be let is deductible as an actual expense. Rental losses cannot be carried forward or set against other income such as salary, though as an administrative concession one property's rental loss may be set against another property's taxable rental income in the same year if all are let at market rates. That matters to the carry section below: negative carry earns you no tax shield. A non-resident landlord's rental income is taxed at 24%. Tenancy stamp duty on a lease of four years or less is 0.4% of total rent. I did not find whether interest paid during construction, before there is any rent, is deductible against later rent. Assume it is not until your tax adviser says otherwise.

Borrowing: LTV, TDSR, MSR, HDB or bank, floating or fixed

TDSR and MSR

MAS's rules for new housing loans (page last updated 16 December 2021, fetched this run) cap total debt servicing at 55% of gross monthly income and cap the mortgage servicing ratio at 30%, and MSR applies only to housing loans for an HDB flat or an executive condominium whose MOP has not ended. It does not apply to your private launch. For TDSR a lender uses the higher of a floor rate or its own rate: 4% for residential property. MAS's page as I fetched it did not state the floor; the ledger records 4% from 30 September 2022. Variable and rental income are counted after at least a 30% haircut, and banks may be stricter than MAS. On a S$1,500,000 loan over 30 years at the 4% floor the instalment is about S$7,160 a month; at 55% that needs a gross household income of about S$13,000 a month with no other debt. That is my arithmetic, using the floor rate and not the rate you will pay.

What I could not find is when a bank tests TDSR on a BUC loan: at approval or at TOP. Assume the bank tests the day you apply, and that your income is what counts. Ask whether it re-tests at completion.

HDB loan or bank loan

The HDB concessionary loan is fixed at 2.6% and is for HDB flats. A private launch is financed by a bank. If you are an EC buyer, ask HDB what applies to your site, because I have not found a source that answers it.

Floating or fixed, by phase

Phase one, construction: floating only. Banks offer a floating rate on a BUC loan, typically 3-month compounded SORA plus a spread; the ledger records the 3-month compounded SORA at 1.19% on 4 September 2026 (PropertyNet.SG) and a typical spread of 0.8 to 1.2% (PropKaki, June 2026), for an all-in rate of about 2.0 to 2.4%. For the illustrations here I assume 2.1%. That is my assumption, not a bank quote, and floating rates move. [⚠ buc.loan.fixed_available: sources differ; awaiting a ruling]

Phase two, TOP to CSC: Redbrick says the floating rate typically lasts at least the first two to three years, and that some banks allow a free package conversion at any stage of disbursement, others only within three months after TOP. That conversion right is worth asking about at the start, because it is what lets you fix the rate once the loan is fully drawn.

Phase three, completed: a fixed package is available. The lowest two-year fixed rate PropertyNet.SG reported on 4 September 2026 is 1.40%. That is the lowest advertised rate for a completed property and it is not what a BUC buyer sees during construction. A typical package has a two-year lock-in with a 1.5% early-exit penalty, so a refinance inside the lock-in costs 1.5% of the outstanding loan.

What you draw down is small early and large late, and interest follows it. On the S$2,000,000 example at an assumed 2.1%, with S$700,000 drawn after the car-park stage the interest is about S$1,225 a month (700,000 x 2.1% / 12); with S$1,200,000 drawn at TOP it is about S$2,100; with the full S$1,500,000 it is about S$2,625, interest only. The guides say the same thing in words: interest accrues only on the amount disbursed, so instalments start small and step up with each milestone. At the 4% TDSR floor the same S$1.5m is S$5,000 a month of interest only. The gap between the 2.1% you pay and the 4% the bank tests you at is why the loan approves and the buyer still feels squeezed. [⚠ buc.pps.interest_on_drawn_only: sources differ; awaiting a ruling]

Valuation

A bank appoints a valuer from its own panel and you cannot choose. If the price is above the valuation, the ledger records that the buyer pays the difference in cash: on a S$2,000,000 price against a S$1,880,000 valuation, the loan is sized on the lower number. That worked example is for a resale and I could not find how a BUC bank values the unit at TOP, so ask.

Renovation, additions and alterations, and rebuild

On a new condominium the control you have over the outcome is smaller than on a house. There is no rebuild, and additions and alterations are for landed houses; for a landed unit the additional gross floor area test is 50% (see the strata-landed page). What you can do is fit out. CPF cannot pay for renovation, improvement or repair: it is your own cash, after you have paid the developer. Renovation cost guides report S$24,800 to S$71,100 for a two-bedroom condominium, and a contingency of 10 to 15% (MoneySmart) or 10 to 20% (HomeMatch). A bank renovation loan is capped at S$30,000 or six times monthly income, whichever is lower, per the sources in the ledger. Condo management corporations typically ask for a refundable renovation deposit, reported at S$2,000 to 5,000 by one guide and S$500 to 1,000 by another. The 12-month defects period is your reason not to hack anything before you have inspected.

The timing is what hurts. The renovation bill arrives after the 25% at TOP and the 15% at CSC, when your cash has been spent, and it cannot be funded from CPF. Budget it at the outset, not at key collection.

Conveyancing: two events, one long file

A new-launch purchase has two legal moments, three to four years apart: the option and the agreement at the start, and the completion at the end, with the progress claims in between. The lawyer's fee for a condominium is reported at S$2,300 to 3,200 plus 9% GST and disbursements; with an independent lawyer, the bank appoints its own for the mortgage, and that is a separate fee. Mortgage duty is 0.4% of the loan, capped at S$500, per an IRAS excerpt in the ledger. A resale with a mortgage takes about 10 to 12 weeks from agreement to completion; a BUC is not on that timetable and I did not find a comparable figure.

Three practical points. First, the agreement is prescribed and no amendment can be made without the Controller's approval, so your lawyer is checking it against the standard, not negotiating it. Second, stamp duty is a 14-day item after signing. Third, keep every progress-payment notice: your bank draws against them, and a call you miss is a default on a contract with a developer.

Estate: a contract in your name is still a contract

If you die or lose capacity partway through a three-to-four-year purchase, the contract does not stop. CPF savings are not covered by a will and do not form part of the estate; they pass by CPF nomination or, with none, via the Public Trustee under intestacy rules, so a valid CPF nomination matters if CPF is in the property. A property held as joint tenants passes to the survivor automatically, which decides who keeps paying; tenants in common share pass under the will. An ABSD-free inheritance rule exists, and it is about property passing to a beneficiary, not about an unfinished purchase. What the estate owes on a half-built unit I did not find a source for, so treat it as a lawyer question.

Insurance is the piece a private buyer usually forgets. The CPF Home Protection Scheme covers HDB flats only. A private buyer uses mortgage-reducing cover, which is a decreasing-sum-assured policy that pays the outstanding loan, and is not portable if you refinance. Whether the sum assured tracks a partly drawn BUC loan I did not find; ask the insurer. If you are a foreigner, a Singapore lasting power of attorney is generally not recognised overseas.

The twelve questions, in plain words

Property gets talked about as if the price were the whole story. It is not. Here are twelve questions, asked in order, about a new launch bought with a loan. The first two sort you; the rest follow.

Two questions that sort a buyer

• Q1. Are you borrowing to buy?
• Q2. Once you hold it, are you lending it out?

Nobody buys an asset expecting it to fall, so 'investor or owner-occupier' sorts no one. These two do. Cash and own use is pure appreciation with no carry. Cash and let out is yield, positive carry by construction. Borrowing and own use is negative carry by construction: most owner-occupiers are here and few say it. Borrowing and letting out is the spread play, and the gap between rent and financing cost is the whole game. On a new launch there is a twist. You cannot let out the unit until TOP, so for the first two to three years a borrowing buyer is in the negative-carry box whatever they plan to do later.

C0. The play: balance sheet or cash flow?

A new launch bought with a loan is a balance-sheet play that you pay for from cash flow. You are betting the unit will be worth more than the loan and the costs at the end. The cash flow only makes it possible to stay in the bet.

C1. Balance sheet: what you own and what you owe

What you own is a right to a unit that does not exist yet, at a fixed price, which becomes a unit at TOP and an owned title at completion. What you owe grows as the bank draws: S$0 at the option, S$700,000 after the car-park stage, S$1,500,000 at completion in the example. You also owe something not yet on any statement: the remaining progress payments, which are a commitment. And you have sunk money that does not appear as equity. BSD of S$69,600, and if you are a second-property Citizen a S$400,000 ABSD, are spent the day you sign. Equity is the market value of what you own less what you owe; the sunk duties are why a small price fall can turn it negative before you have collected the keys.

C2. Cash flow: what actually moves, and where the gap is

The cash goes out in this order on a S$2,000,000 purchase with a first-home Citizen: S$100,000 at booking, S$300,000 at signing, BSD S$69,600 within 14 days, then the balance of your 25% during the foundation call, then interest on the drawn loan every month, then rent for wherever you live now if you do not own it. Legal fees are S$2,300 to 3,200 plus GST. At TOP the bank funds most of the 25% call, but the fit-out, furniture and the first property tax arrive from your pocket, and CPF cannot pay for the fit-out. The funding gap is worst in two places: at signing, when the duties fall due on top of the 20%, and at key collection, when you owe the last calls, renovation, and two housing costs at once if you still hold another home. The gap is not the loan. The gap is the cash you did not plan for.

C3. P&L: what it does to profit, which is not the same as cash

Profit is not cash. Your interest is an expense, and it is cash too. Your principal repayments are cash and not an expense. Your stamp duty is cash and not an expense in the year you pay it: it is a cost of getting in that you only recover, if at all, through the sale price. Until you sell there is no realised gain or loss; the unit's value moves on paper and the bank's valuer, not you, decides what it is worth for lending. If you let it out, rent less interest, property tax, agent fees and vacancy is the profit, and losses cannot be set against other income. A buyer who confuses a paper gain with spare cash is the buyer who hits the squeeze.

C4. Carry: income minus financing cost

During construction, negative by construction: there is no rent and the interest is real. After TOP, it depends on the quadrant. The average gross yield for non-landed private condominiums in 2026 is 3.36% (PropertyNet.SG). On S$2,000,000 that is S$67,200 a year, about S$5,600 a month gross. Interest only on S$1,500,000 at the 2.1% assumed is about S$2,625, so the gross spread is about S$2,975 a month before property tax, management fees, agent fees and vacancy. Principal and interest over 30 years at 2.1% is about S$5,620 a month, which is roughly all of the gross rent. At the 4% test rate, interest only is S$5,000. The carry is thin, it swings with the floating rate, and every figure here is my arithmetic on averages, not a forecast. The private vacancy rate in the second quarter of 2026 was 6.4%, and private rents rose 0.7% on the quarter.

C5. Give and get

You give up cash for three to four years, the ability to borrow elsewhere, and, if you have to rent, the certainty of living where you want. You get today's price fixed in a contract, a unit you choose from the whole stack, staged payment that lets your cash arrive later than the price does, and a new home. Time is not free. Time is where the rate, the vacancy rate and your income can move.

C6. What you are exposed to

Interest rates, because the loan floats. The market, because your price is fixed and the market is not: the URA flash estimate for private prices was +0.5% quarter on quarter in the second quarter of 2026, and about 60,600 private units are expected to complete in the coming years, which is the supply that will be competing with yours for tenants and buyers at TOP. The rules, because they change mid-hold: the SSD period was three years and became four on 4 July 2025. Your income. The developer, mitigated by the project account and late-delivery damages but not eliminated. And the valuation at the end.

C7. For how long

Three to four years to the last progress payment, and a four-year seller's stamp duty window from the day you sign, and a loan of up to 30 years, or 35 at a lower loan-to-value. Practically, four years minimum, and that is the number to plan on.

C8. Failure cascade: in what order it goes wrong

Negative carry comes first: interest, then rent elsewhere, then fit-out, and no income to meet them. It hits cash flow: you start drawing on savings or on a card to pay a progress call. It accumulates into the P&L: each month's shortfall is a loss, and none of it is tax-deductible against other income. Then negative equity: your price is fixed, the market moves down and the sunk stamp duty means you owe more than the unit is worth. Then illiquidity: selling in the SSD window costs 16, 12, 8 or 4% of the price, and a bank lending against a lower valuation wants cash from you. Then insolvency. The mitigation is at the beginning of the chain: size the loan to the 4% test rate, not the 2.1% you pay, and hold a cash reserve for the fit-out and for two years of interest.

C9. Liquidity: how fast it turns back into money, and the haircut

Slowly, and at a cost. The seller typically pays 2% commission on a resale, with the buyer's agent paid by co-broke from that or directly by the buyer where agreed, and a resale takes about eight weeks from option to completion. Before four years, add SSD: on S$2,000,000, S$320,000 in year one down to S$80,000 in year four. Add the BSD and any ABSD you paid, which do not come back on a sale, and repay CPF with the accrued interest, which the ledger records at 2.5% a year. On these numbers a forced sale in year two costs about S$240,000 SSD plus S$40,000 commission, and that is before the price moves. Selling before TOP is a rule I could not find in any source.

C10. Control: can you move the outcome?

Some. Before signing you choose the unit, the floor, the stack, the payment timing inside the option window, and the loan package, including whether it can be converted. After TOP you choose the fit-out, whether to let, and when to fix the rate. You cannot move the market, the completion date, the floating rate or the developer. On a landed unit, reno, additions and alterations and rebuild are the same lever at a larger scale, and the 50% floor-area test and the strata-landed rules decide what you may do. On a condo it is a fit-out, and the 12-month defects period comes first.

C11. The exit: how you get out, and what it costs

Three doors. Sell: SSD inside four years, commission, legal fees, the CPF refund with interest, and the sunk duties. Let out: after TOP, minimum lease of three months, no short-term letting of a private home, and an occupancy cap of six unrelated persons under 90 square metres; you carry the vacancy. Hold and refinance to a fixed package after TOP: a lock-in of about two years with a 1.5% penalty for leaving early. None of the three is free, and none of them is instant.

The B2B spoke: a drawdown calendar for developers, banks and brokers

This describes a service that does not exist as a signed offer. It is a draft, and nothing here is an offer to anyone. The problem is specific to a new launch. A buyer has a short option window, three weeks per the ledger, to decide, and a payment schedule of ten stages over three to four years that a sales brochure summarises on one line. Very few buyers can tell you the day-by-day cash they need. The bank tests the buyer at a 4% floor and then draws against progress notices. What is missing is a single sheet, computed from the actual contract and the actual bank offer, showing on each date what is due, how much the bank funds, how much is cash and how much can be CPF, and what the monthly interest is at the assumed rate and at the test rate.

Three business customers have a reason to want it. A developer's sales team or a marketing agency selling a launch wants buyers who exercise the option and then complete; a buyer who cannot fund the second stage is a lost sale and a resale of the unit. A mortgage broker wants the buyer's TDSR headroom and bank package conversion rights set out before the exercise date. A bank wants fewer surprises at the foundation call. I have not priced it and I have no customer for it. The developer pays the buyer's agent, typically 2 to 3% of price, so a calendar sold to a developer's agency carries a conflict that the buyer must be told about; the calendar's arithmetic has to come from the contract, not from whoever is paying.

The realtor economics: what the agent earns, and where the incentive points

There are no fixed commission rates and no prescribed guidelines, according to the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), whose Buying or selling page was last updated on 18 August 2025. The commission is agreed in advance, can be written into the Prescribed Estate Agency Agreement, and is paid to the property agency, not to the agent. On a new launch the ledger records the market norm that the developer pays the buyer's agent, typically 2 to 3% of the price, and the buyer pays nothing. That sits awkwardly beside CEA's rule that an agent may not collect commission from more than one party in a transaction. I have not resolved how the two fit and I flag it. Ask your agent, in writing, who is paying them and how much.

What that is in money: 2 to 3% of S$2,000,000 is S$40,000 to S$60,000 per sale, my arithmetic. The agent does not keep all of it. Agent-to-agency splits are typically 70/30 to 90/10 in the agent's favour, so the agent's share is roughly S$28,000 to S$54,000. Median annual agent income is reported around S$72,000, and S$10,000 to S$40,000 for a new agent in year one; those are secondary-source figures, not CEA statistics. One new-launch sale can be a third to three-quarters of a typical agent's year. I do not know when the developer pays the agent, whether at exercise, at signing or by stage, and that timing changes what an agent has to gain from holding your hand through the build.

Now the incentive, including against me. An agent on a developer's commission is paid when you sign, not when you finish paying and not when you are still solvent in year three. The pay rises with the price. Nothing is paid for telling you to wait, to buy a smaller unit, or to buy a resale. It is paid by the person selling to you. Where it points with you: repeat business and referrals, CEA's rules, and this — almost 8 in 10 consumers know commission is negotiable, and 85% of those who negotiated got it lowered. If I, or any agent, tell you that a launch is right for you, then ask what I earn if you sign and what I earn if you do not, and ask it in writing.

What I could not verify

• IRAS's BSD and ABSD pages rendered navigation only on 29 September 2026. The duty and refund rates on this page rest on the ledger's earlier reads.
• MAS's TDSR and MSR page (last updated 16 December 2021) did not state the 4% floor; the floor is from the ledger.
• URA's Home Buyer's Guide PDF returned 404, so the completion-stage split of 8% + 5% held + 2% is from a search-result summary.
• Whether a BUC unit can be sold before TOP, and at what cost; when a bank re-tests TDSR and re-values a BUC unit; when the developer pays the agent; what the held 5% is held against.
• Whether an FTA buyer must pay ABSD in full at signing before claiming remission.
• Rates and rents are ledger figures dated to September 2026 and are not quotes.

Sources

• MAS — Loan Tenure and Loan-to-Value Limits (page last updated 27 March 2024) (2026-09-29) · https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/explainers/new-housing-loans/loan-tenure-and-loan-to-value-limits
• MAS — Rules for New Housing Loans: MSR and TDSR (page last updated 16 December 2021) (2026-09-29) · https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/explainers/new-housing-loans/msr-and-tdsr-rules
• MAS — Rules for New Housing Loans (overview; revised 16 December 2021) (2026-09-29) · https://www.mas.gov.sg/regulation/explainers/new-housing-loans
• URA — Buying Property: uncompleted private residential property (last updated 29 June 2026) (2026-06-29) · https://www.ura.gov.sg/guidelines/property-and-business-owners/property/buying-property/
• URA — Use the standard Option to Purchase and Sale and Purchase Agreement in the sale of the units (last updated 11 June 2026) (2026-06-11) · https://www.ura.gov.sg/Corporate/Guidelines/Developers/Housing-Developers/Housing-Developers/standard-option
• URA — Home Buyer's Guide, 5 September 2025 (PDF returned 404; cited through a search-result summary) (2025-09-05) · https://www.ura.gov.sg/-/media/Corporate/Property/Home-Buyers-Guide/Home-Buyers-Guide-5-Sep-2025.pdf
• CEA — Buying or selling (page last updated 18 August 2025) (2025-08-18) · https://www.cea.gov.sg/consumers/engaging-a-property-agent/buying-or-selling/
• IRAS — Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD) (page rendered navigation only this run) (2026-09-29) · https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/stamp-duty/for-property/buying-or-acquiring-property/buyer's-stamp-duty-(bsd)
• IRAS — Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) (page rendered navigation only this run) (2026-09-29) · https://www.iras.gov.sg/taxes/stamp-duty/for-property/buying-or-acquiring-property/additional-buyer's-stamp-duty-(absd)
• Redbrick Mortgage Advisory — BUC loans: financing new home construction projects (18 March 2025; ledger read, not re-fetched) (2025-03-18) · https://www.redbrick.sg/blog/buc-loans-financing-new-home-construction-projects/
• PropKaki — Property guide: ten-stage BUC payment schedule (ledger read; not re-fetched) (2026-09-29) · https://propkaki.sg
• Homejourney — Property portal guide: BUC progressive payment schedule (22 February 2026; ledger read, not re-fetched) (2026-02-22) · https://www.homejourney.sg
• PropertyNet.SG — Latest bank mortgage loan rates across Singapore (ledger read, 4 September 2026; not re-fetched) (2026-09-04) · https://propertynet.sg/latest-bank-mortgage-loan-rates-across-singapore/
• LovelyHomes — Property guide: seven-stage payment schedule (ledger read; not re-fetched) (2026-04-27) · https://lovelyhomes.com.sg
• SkillUp — Real estate agent salary in Singapore (ledger read; not re-fetched) (2026-07-01) · https://www.skillup.sg/blog/real-estate-agent-salary-singapore