HDB completion cash costs: what CPF and stamp duty add on
6 min read
An HDB flat has three numbers, not one: the monthly instalment, everything due at or before completion, and the first-year bills the mortgage does not cover. Whether CPF Ordinary Account savings can pay a line, and whether you hold the cash for it, are separate questions, so give each line both a figure and a funding column.
Channel NewsAsia's Money Mind 2026 aired "The cost of home ownership" on 30 September 2026, framed around a woman who paid more than a mortgage to reach a first home. Every figure below names the page that publishes it, and the worked example at the end is a labelled hypothetical. [1]
What has to be funded on completion day
Start with the small lines. Resale buyers pay a non-refundable application fee of $40 for 1- and 2-room flats and $80 for 3-room and bigger. On resale you also pay the seller an option fee of $1 to $1,000 plus an option exercise fee, together capped at $5,000 — fees CPF says form part of the resale price and cannot be paid with CPF. [2]
Because those fees sit inside the price, count them within the downpayment, not on top of it. With an HDB loan the downpayment is at least 25% of the purchase price, from OA savings, cash or both; with a bank loan 25% is due and 5% must be cash. For resale it falls due at purchase, and any Cash Over Valuation must be paid in cash. [2] [3]
Stamp duty sits above that. IRAS computes BSD and ABSD on the higher of the purchase price in the dutiable document or the market value. Its residential BSD bands from 15 February 2023 start at 1% on the first $180,000, 2% on the next $180,000 and 3% on the next $640,000; CPF's own $700,000 resale example gives $15,600. [2] [4] [5]
ABSD follows your profile at purchase: from 27 April 2023 a Singapore Citizen's second residential property attracts 20% and a third 30%, while a Permanent Resident's first property attracts 5%. For an HDB flat, ABSD is fully remitted where the purchaser or any joint purchaser is a Singapore Citizen, granted automatically upon HDB's approval. [5] [6]
What CPF can pay, and what it cannot
CPF's guide to buying a home with CPF lists stamp and legal fees among what OA savings may cover, and its fee schedule says both can be paid in full from OA. That same page lists Home Protection Scheme premiums, for HDB flats only, as OA-payable, so it is worth checking each insurance line rather than treating them all as cash. [2] [7]
How much you may draw is a separate question from whether you may draw it: CPF states limits apply, set by remaining lease, property type and loan type. With an HDB loan you may retain up to $20,000 in your OA; bank loan holders may retain any amount, with CPF recommending at least $20,000. What you use comes back, with accrued interest, on sale. Grants sit apart again — CPF Board describes the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant as offsetting part of a new BTO flat's price, and the pages here do not extend it to resale. [3] [8] [9] [7]
The bills that keep arriving after move-in
Town councils collect service and conservancy charges monthly to clean common areas and maintain equipment such as lifts; CPF Board puts them at $21 to $123 a month by flat size, after the reduced fees for Singaporeans owning and occupying the flat without any private property. HDB fire insurance is compulsory while an HDB loan is outstanding, with a five-year premium of $1.11 to $6.68. [2]
Property tax is yours to price: it applies whether or not the flat is occupied and equals the Annual Value multiplied by the prevailing property tax rate, with CPF directing readers to a property tax calculator. MoneySense lists property taxes, insurance and conservancy fees among ongoing expenses that cannot be paid with CPF savings; read that against the Home Protection Scheme line above. The pages cited here do not set out sinking fund contributions. [2] [10]
One worked illustration to reuse
This illustration is hypothetical: it takes CPF Board's $700,000 4-room resale example, which supplies only the price and the $15,600 duty, and assumes a 75% HDB loan of $525,000. That loan is an input of this worksheet, not a CPF figure, and option and exercise fees already paid sit inside the 25% downpayment, so credit them there. [2] [3]
The legal scale converts once the units are right: 13.50 cents per $100 is $0.135 per $100, so the first $30,000 is 300 × $0.135 = $40.50, the next $30,000 is 300 × $0.108 = $32.40, and the $640,000 above them is 6,400 × $0.09 = $576.00 — a purchase legal fee of $648.90 before rounding up and GST. The mortgage scale matches, but CPF does not name the amount it applies to, so treating the assumed $525,000 loan as that base gives $40.50 + $32.40 + $418.50 = $491.40. [2]
Registration and microfilming add $38.30 for lease in-escrow where HDB acts for your purchase, $38.30 for mortgage in-escrow where HDB acts for the loan, $32 for a resale title search, $64.45 for the buyer's caveat, $64.45 for the mortgagee's caveat and $299.75 for a 4-room survey — $537.25, with the caveat fees published GST-inclusive — plus a separate $16.35 miscellaneous legal fee where HDB acts in the purchase. Add the $80 application fee, the $175,000 downpayment and the $15,600 stamp duty, and those lines total $192,373.90 on a mixed tax basis. [2]
That is a funding requirement, not a cash figure. OA savings can cover the downpayment, stamp duty and legal fees where you have the balance and the applicable limits; the cash-only lines are the option and exercise fees, any Cash Over Valuation and the 5% bank-loan slice. For year one, add your own conservancy charge, fire premium, Annual Value times the prevailing property tax rate, and Home Protection Scheme quotation. [3] [8] [2] [7]
Read next
Sources
- Money Mind 2026 – The cost of home ownership – CNA
- HDB option fee and housing expenses you should know – CPF
- HDB loan or bank loan? 3 differences you should know – CPF
- IRAS | Stamp Duty
- IRAS | Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD)
- Acquisition of HDB Flats and new Executive Condominium (EC) Units
- Using your CPF to buy a property under the Housing Scheme
- CPFB | Retain $20,000 in your OA if you are taking a housing loan
- CPFB | Essential budgeting tips for your BTO flat
- Buying a Property: How Much Can You Afford?
BUTLER Magazine Editorial · AI-assisted research and writing, reviewed by our automated editorial team. Sources checked 2026-10-10. Featured image: AI-generated editorial illustration.
