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Cooling Measures to Consider Before Buying a Property in Singapore (2026): ABSD, LTV, TDSR, MSR and SSD

Singapore's 2026 cooling measures in one place: ABSD, LTV, TDSR, MSR and the 4-year SSD, with worked examples of the cash and income a second property needs.

By Propwise EditorialUpdated 2 October 20268 min read

How we made this. Updated for 2026 with AI-assisted research. Figures are linked to their sources — check them before you act.

Before you buy a home in Singapore, and especially before you buy a second one, five rules decide how much cash you need and how much you can borrow: ABSD, the loan-to-value (LTV) limit, the TDSR, the MSR and the Seller’s Stamp Duty. None of them were relaxed in 2026, and two of them (SSD and the HDB loan limit) were tightened in the last two years. If you last read about them in 2017, almost every number has changed.

At a glance

  • ABSD for a Singapore Citizen is 0% on the first home, 20% on the second and 30% on the third. PRs pay 5% / 30% / 35%. Foreigners pay 60% on any home.
  • LTV: a bank lends at most 75% on your first housing loan, 45% if you already have one, and 35% if you have two or more.
  • TDSR: all your monthly debt repayments, tested at a 4% interest rate, must stay within 55% of gross income. MSR caps the mortgage at 30% of income for HDB flats and new ECs.
  • SSD applies if you sell within 4 years (for homes bought from 4 July 2025), at 16% / 12% / 8% / 4%.
  • Old numbers are gone: the 60% TDSR, 7% ABSD and 3-year SSD in older articles no longer apply.

Measure 1: Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD)

ABSD is a tax you pay on top of the normal Buyer’s Stamp Duty (1% to 6% of the price). It applies to private homes and HDB flats alike, and it is due within 14 days of signing, so plan to pay it in cash first. The current rates took effect on 27 April 2023 and are unchanged as at October 2026:

Buyer1st home2nd home3rd and later
Singapore Citizen0%20%30%
Singapore PR5%30%35%
Foreigner60%60%60%
Company or trust65%65%65%

Source: IRAS — ABSD.

Three details catch people out:

  • Joint buyers pay the highest rate among them, on the whole price. A Singapore Citizen with no home who buys with a sibling who already owns a flat pays 20% on the full price, not on half.
  • Your status on the purchase date counts. If you still own your first home on the day you accept the option to purchase (OTP) for the next one, the new home is your second.
  • Married couples have a refund route. A couple with at least one citizen who buys a second home together pays the 20% upfront, then gets it back if they sell the first home within six months of buying a completed property (or of the TOP of an uncompleted one). Single citizens have no such refund unless they are 55 or older and buy a lower-value home.

The full rate tables and more examples are in our stamp duty guide.

Measure 2: loan-to-value (LTV) limits

LTV is the share of the price (or valuation, if lower) that a bank may lend. The MAS limits depend on how many housing loans you already have:

Your existing housing loansMax LTVMin cash downpaymentLTV if tenure > 30 years or past age 65
None75%5%55%
One45%25%25%
Two or more35%25%15%

The cut-off for the lower column is a tenure above 30 years (25 years for an HDB flat) or a loan that runs past age 65. Companies and other non-individual borrowers get only 15%.

If you take an HDB loan, the limit is 75%. HDB cut it from 80% on 20 August 2024. It was 90% before December 2021.

The trap the 2017 version of this article warned about still applies: banks lend on the lower of price and valuation. If you pay S$1.5m and the bank values the unit at S$1.45m, it lends 75% of S$1.45m, which is S$1,087,500 instead of S$1,125,000. Your share rises by S$37,500, and the S$50,000 above valuation must be paid in cash. Ask for an indicative valuation before you sign the OTP.

Measures 3 and 4: TDSR and MSR

The Total Debt Servicing Ratio caps all your monthly debt repayments (home loans, car loans, other property loans and part of any loan you guarantee) at 55% of gross monthly income. It was 60% until 16 December 2021.

The bank does not test you at today’s rate. It uses a 4% medium-term rate for residential loans, set by MAS on 30 September 2022. HDB loans are tested at 3%. That matters in 2026. Three-month SORA was about 1.23% on 1 October 2026, and after the US Fed hike packages cost about 1.5–1.8% floating and 2.0–2.2% fixed (The Business Times, 2 Oct 2026), so your real instalment will be far below the instalment that the bank tests.

The Mortgage Servicing Ratio is a second, tighter cap. The mortgage alone may not exceed 30% of income. It applies only to loans for HDB flats, and for ECs bought from a developer while their minimum occupation period runs. It does not apply to private condos or landed homes.

Example: you borrow S$1,125,000 over 30 years. At the 4% test rate the instalment is about S$5,371 a month. With no other debts, TDSR needs a gross income of at least S$5,371 ÷ 0.55 ≈ S$9,765 a month. If the same loan were for an HDB flat or a new EC, MSR would need S$5,371 ÷ 0.30 ≈ S$17,903. At an actual 1.8% rate, the real instalment would be about S$4,047. Run your own numbers in the Propwise mortgage calculator.

Measure 5: Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD)

SSD is a tax on selling a home soon after you buy it. On 4 July 2025 the holding period went from three years to four, and each rate rose by four points:

Sold withinBought on or after 4 Jul 2025Bought 11 Mar 2017 – 3 Jul 2025
1 year16%12%
2 years12%8%
3 years8%4%
4 years4%0%
After 4 years0%0%

Source: IRAS — SSD.

SSD is charged on the sale price or market value, whichever is higher, not on your profit. Say you bought a condo for S$1.5m in September 2025 and sell it for S$1.6m in October 2027, two years and one month later. SSD is 8% × S$1.6m = S$128,000. That is more than the S$100,000 gain, before agent and legal fees. Plan to hold any purchase for at least four years.

Worked example: a citizen couple buying a second property

Take a married citizen couple who own an HDB flat past its minimum occupation period. They want to buy a S$1.5m condo and keep the flat. (They must wait out the MOP first. ABSD applies because the flat counts as their first property.)

CostFlat fully paid offFlat still has a loan
Buyer’s Stamp DutyS$44,600S$44,600
ABSD at 20%S$300,000S$300,000
Maximum bank loan75% = S$1,125,00045% = S$675,000
DownpaymentS$375,000 (min S$75,000 cash)S$825,000 (min S$375,000 cash)
Total upfrontS$719,600S$1,169,600

The BSD works out as 1% of the first S$180,000, 2% of the next S$180,000, 3% of the next S$640,000 and 4% of the last S$500,000: S$1,800 + S$3,600 + S$19,200 + S$20,000 = S$44,600.

If the couple decide to move into the condo and sell the flat within six months, the S$300,000 ABSD comes back to them. If they keep the flat as an investment, it does not. For many families, the 20% ABSD is the single biggest reason to “sell one, buy one” rather than accumulate.

What changed since this article first ran

The 2017 version listed four measures. Here is what has moved since then:

  • ABSD for a citizen’s second home went from 7% to 12% (July 2018), 17% (2021) and 20% (2023). For foreigners it went from 15% to 20% (2018), 30% (2021) and 60% (2023).
  • TDSR fell from 60% to 55%. The stress-test rate rose from 3.5% to 4%.
  • LTV for long loans fell. For a tenure above 30 years or past age 65, the limits are now 55% / 25% / 15% (first / second / third loan), lower than the limits in force when this article first ran; they were cut in July 2018.
  • SSD became a 4-year tax again from 4 July 2025.
  • HDB loans shrank from 90% to 75% LTV.

The 15-month wait-out for private owners buying a resale flat without an HDB loan was removed on 28 July 2026. This is the only recent easing, and it helps downgraders, not investors.

Bottom line

The 2026 rules reward owner-occupiers and penalise accumulation and quick flips. Before you look at showflats, work out three numbers: your ABSD rate, your LTV tier, and the loan your income supports at the 4% test rate. Then add four years of holding costs to your plan. For the loan side, see our guides to TDSR and LTV limits.

Sources

absdltvmsrssdstamp dutybuying a property

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