The formula to calculate the cash proceeds of your Singapore property for sale is as follows:

  • Price sold
  • Less outstanding mortgage loan plus any outstanding instalment and interest.
  • Less CPF used plus accrued interest.
  • Less property agent’s commission
  • Less property tax up to the date of completion.
  • Less seller stamp duty (if applicable).
  • Less legal fees from lawyer acting for seller in the conveyancing.
  • Less maintenance and service charge payable to the MC (if applicable) up to the date of completion.

If the Singapore residential property is sold within 4 years of holding period for OTP exercised from 14/1/2011 onwards, the SSD payable by the seller is as follows:

  • If sold in the 1st yr of purchase – SSD is 16% of price sold
  • If sold in the 2nd yr of purchase – SSD is 12% of price sold
  • If sold in the 3rd yr of purchase – SSD is 8% of price sold
  • If sold in the 4rd yr of purchase – SSD is 4% of price sold
  • If sold after the 4th yr of purchase – no SSD is payable
    Computation of holding period is based on exercise date of purchase to exercise date of resale. If stamp duty is payable, it has to be paid within 2 weeks after exercising OTP.

Legal fees are no longer regulated for sale of Singapore properties. The seller may shop around for competitive rates or ask the salesperson to recommend a lawyer.

You should refer to the Letter of Offer (LO) issued by your banker when you first took up the housing loan. The LO usually states how much written notice you would need to give to the bank to discharge your outstanding loan. If you are still not sure, it is best that you contact your banker before you set the completion date of the sale of your Singapore property in the Option to Purchase to avoid having to pay a penalty.

You have to pay GST on the sale of your 2 storey private shophouse only if you are GST registered. The GST will be calculated based only on the portion of your 2 storey private shophouse that is approved for non-residential use. If your 2nd storey is approved for residential use only, it will not be subject to GST. You can engage a professional valuer to apportion the value of your 1st storey shop for the purpose of calculating the GST payable. It is recommended that you check with IRAS for confirmation.

It depends on when your factory was purchased and how long is the holding period. The following Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) rates will be imposed on industrial properties and land bought and sold within 3 years of the date of purchase on or after 12/1/2013 (based on the exercise date of OTP).

 Holding Period
  SSD
 1 year or less
  15% of price sold
 2 years or less
  10% of price sold
 3 years or less
  5% of price sold

Computation of holding period is based on exercise date of purchase to exercise date of resale. If SSD is payable, it has to be paid within 2 weeks after buyer has exercised the OTP of the resale.

Based on the fact that the HDB resale flat you purchased was completed in Sept 2010, your resale application was most probably received by HDB before 30/8/2010. That means your Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) is 3 years from the effective date of resale. The different criteria for MOP are as follows:

  • No minimum occupation period
  • For HDB 1-Room flats and HUDC flats.
  • 5 years from effective date of resale
  • HDB flats bought direct from HDB, DBSS flat bought from developer and HDB resale flats bought with CPF Housing Grant Scheme
  • HDB flats bought under Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS)
  • 7 years from the date of selection of the replacement flat, provided they had taken possession of the replacement flat; or
  • 5 years from the effective date of resale of the replacement flat; whichever comes first
  • HDB resale flats bought in the open market (without CPF Housing Grant Scheme)
  • The minimum occupation period (MOP) depends on when HDB receives the resale application are as follows:
    Resale Application Received Date MOP applicable
    Before 5 March 2010 (includes owners owning their resale flat as at this date) 2 years from effective date of resale if the owner takes a loan from HDB
    1 year     from the effective date of resale if:
    i) the owner has not taken a loan from HDB; or
    ii) he has taken a loan from the bank/financial institution to finance the purchase or no loan
    5 March 2010 – 29 August 2010 3 years from effective date of resale, regardless of the type of loan taken by the owners or no loan
    On or after 30 August 2010 5 years from effective date of resale, regardless of the type of loan taken by the owners or no loan
      Source: HDB

You are required to observe a 7-day cooling-off period after you have endorsed and submitted the Resale Checklist for Sellers to HDB before you can grant an Option to Purchase to a buyer. Your salesperson is required to go though the Resale Checklist with you not more than one day before you submit the Resale Checklist to HDB.
If you are buying another HDB flat (new/resale/DBSS) and taking HDB/bank loan, your salesperson is also required to work out the following and submit them to you for endorsement and submission to HDB:

  • Estimated Sale Proceeds for current flat; and
  • Financial Plan for next flat purchase

Before you put-up your HDB flat for sale, please take note that even though your spouse is only an occupier (not an owner) of your HDB flat, your spouse must be present during the First Appointment with HDB and give consent for the sale by signing the “Spouse Consent to Resale” form & the “Acknowledgement by Spouse” form in the presence of the HDB officer, failing which the sale of your HDB flat will be rejected by HDB.

Yes, you will automatically qualify for the higher LTV limit of 80% in a bank loan for the purchase of the bigger HDB resale flat. This is because you are required by HDB to sell your existing HDB flat within 6 months of taking possession of the bigger HDB resale flat.
You will be required to provide your banker a copy of the signed undertaking to HDB committing to complete the sale of your existing HDB flat within the period stipulated in the undertaking.

he formula to calculate the cash proceeds from the sale of your HDB flat is as follows:

  • Resale price
  • Less outstanding loan (For HDB loan, get from HDB website with SingPass* or for bank loan, get statement from bank)
  • Less Resale Levy (if any)
  • Less CPF used plus accrued interest (From CPF website with SingPass*)
  • Less Deposit received
  • Less Upgrading Costs (if any)
  • Less arrears to HDB (if any)

You can use the HDB Sale Proceeds Calculator at www.hdb.gov.sg
*Can apply SingPass through Internet
If the cash proceeds is negative, the Deposit received must be paid to HDB to return to your CPF account

You should engage a lawyer immediately after your buyer has exercised the Option to Purchase. This is to enable your appointed lawyer to give immediate notice to your banker to discharge your outstanding bank loan otherwise you may have to pay interest to the bank in lieu of such notice. You have a choice to engage HDB for the conveyancing plus an outside lawyer to discharge the bank loan or have one outside lawyer to do both. If you don’t know of any outside lawyer, you can ask your salesperson to recommend one lawyer to you.

You have to pay GST on the sale of your 2 storey HDB shophouse only if you are GST registered. The GST will be calculated based only on the portion of your 2 storey HDB shophouse that is approved for non-residential use. If your 2nd storey is approved for residential use only, it will not be subject to GST. You can engage a professional valuer to apportion the value of your 1st storey shop for the purpose of computing the GST payable. It is recommended that you check with IRAS for confirmation.