A
ABSD, Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, is a tax on top of BSD charged when a buyer acquires an additional residential property in Singapore. The rate...
ABSD remission is a conditional refund of Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty already paid. The main route is the matrimonial home remission: a married couple...
Agent commission on a rental is the fee paid to a property agent for arranging a tenancy, typically expressed as a number of months of rent and payable by...
AIP and IPA both mean In Principle Approval, a bank's non binding indication of how much it will lend a buyer, based on documented income, existing debt...
The air conditioner ledge, often called the aircon ledge, is the small external space set aside on a unit's floor plan for the outdoor condensing units of...
Amortisation is how a mortgage is gradually paid off through equal monthly instalments over the loan tenure, split between interest and principal, with...
Annual Value, AV, is IRAS's estimate of the gross annual rent a property could fetch if let out, excluding furniture, furnishings and maintenance,...
B
A balance units chart is the running list a developer or its agents publish showing which units in a new launch are still available for sale, updated as...
Balloting is the computerized draw HDB runs after a BTO or Sale of Balance Flats application window closes, which assigns every applicant a queue number....
A bank valuation is a lender commissioned assessment of a property's market worth, used to decide the maximum loan amount. A bank lends its Loan to Value...
A bay window is a window that projects outward from a room's external wall, usually with a low sill that can double as a seating ledge. Whether its area...
The breakeven point on a property is the price, or rent, at which you recover everything put in, purchase price, every cost of buying, and every holding...
A bridging loan is short term financing that covers the cash gap when a buyer's new property completes before their existing property is sold. Singapore...
BSD, Buyer's Stamp Duty, is a tiered tax payable on every Singapore property purchase, regardless of citizenship or how many properties the buyer already...
BTO, Build to Order, is HDB's quarterly ballot system for new flats sold before construction begins. Applicants apply online during a launch window, pay a...
C
Capital appreciation is the rise in a property's market value over time, a gain that only becomes real money if you sell or refinance against it. It is...
Capital outlay is the total upfront cash and CPF a buyer must have ready before or at completion, downpayment, stamp duties, legal fees, and other one...
Cash flow is the actual money moving in and out of a property each month, rent received minus the mortgage instalment, property tax, maintenance and other...
A caveat is a formal notice lodged against a property's title with the Singapore Land Authority to protect an interest in that property, most often filed...
CCR, RCR and OCR divide Singapore's private property market into three zones. CCR, Core Central Region, is Districts 1, 2, 4, 9, 10 and 11, the prestige...
The Certificate of Statutory Completion, or CSC, is issued after Temporary Occupation Permit, once a development has been confirmed built fully in...
Cluster housing is a form of strata landed housing, typically terrace or semi detached units within a single gated development managed by an MCST, sharing...
The completion date is the day legal ownership of a property formally transfers from seller to buyer, the balance purchase price and outstanding loan are...
A conservation shophouse is a shophouse within a URA gazetted conservation area, where the facade and certain architectural elements are protected and any...
COV, Cash Over Valuation, is the amount an HDB resale buyer pays above the bank's or HDB's valuation of the flat. It reflects competitive bidding in a...
The covenant of quiet enjoyment is an implied protection in a Singapore tenancy that the landlord will not interfere with the tenant's lawful use and...
CPF accrued interest is the interest, 2.5 percent a year and compounding, that CPF Ordinary Account savings would have earned had they not been withdrawn...
CPF OA, the Central Provident Fund Ordinary Account, is a Singaporean's compulsory savings account that can be used for housing, education and...
CPF SA, the Special Account, is a Singaporean's retirement savings account, separate from the Ordinary Account, earning 4 percent per annum in 2026 versus...
D
Days on market is how long a listing has been actively for sale before it finds a buyer, counted from when it first goes live to when an Option to...
The defects liability period is the window after a new property is handed over during which the developer is contractually obliged to fix defects at no...
The Deferred Payment Scheme, DPS, lets a new launch buyer defer most of the price until TOP. MND removed it for EC land tendered from 8 May 2026 onward; every EC on the market today can still be offered on DPS.
A project account is a dedicated bank account that Singapore law requires every licensed housing developer to open for each development, so buyer payments...
A development charge is a levy payable to the state when a landowner intensifies a site's use, for example by increasing the permitted gross floor area...
A diplomatic clause is a tenancy agreement clause that lets a tenant end the lease early, without the usual penalty, if their posting to Singapore ends or...
The down payment is the portion of a property price you pay upfront before a bank loan covers the rest, sized by the LTV limit. For a first bank loan, LTV...
A dual key unit is a single condo unit built with two separate, self contained living spaces, each with its own entrance, bathroom and kitchenette,...
E
An Executive Condominium, EC, is a Singapore hybrid public private housing type with eligibility rules and pricing similar to HDB at first, that fully...
The Ethnic Integration Policy, EIP, sets ethnic quotas for Chinese, Malay, Indian and Other groups in each HDB block and neighbourhood, introduced in 1989...
En bloc, or collective sale, is when the owners of an entire condominium development sell the whole property together to a developer for redevelopment. It...
An encumbrance is any claim, charge, or restriction registered against a property's title that limits the owner's ability to freely sell or transfer it,...
Entry price is what a property actually costs to acquire once every upfront cost is included, not just the headline price on the Option to Purchase. It is...
An essential occupier is someone HDB requires you to list on a flat application to meet the citizenship or family nucleus conditions of a scheme, even...
An executive apartment is a single storey HDB flat type larger than a standard 5 room flat, built mainly in the late 1980s and 1990s. Remaining lease on...
An executive maisonette is a two storey HDB flat type, generally larger than a standard flat, built mostly from the 1980s to the mid 1990s. Financing and...
The exercise fee is the payment a buyer makes to exercise an Option to Purchase and convert it into a binding contract. For private resale property it is...
An exit strategy is the plan for how and when you eventually sell, refinance, or otherwise leave a property, worked out before you buy rather than...
F
A family nucleus is the specific group of people, defined by their relationship to you, that HDB recognizes as eligible to apply for a flat together....
The Fiance and Fiancee Scheme lets an engaged couple apply for an HDB flat together before marriage, on the understanding that they register their...
Fire insurance is a policy HDB requires when a flat is bought with an HDB concessionary loan, covering the cost of reinstating the flat's basic structure...
First timer status means no one in your household, owners or listed occupiers, has previously received a CPF housing grant or owned a subsidized HDB flat,...
A fixed rate home loan package locks your mortgage interest rate for a set period, commonly two to five years, so the monthly instalment stays predictable...
A floating rate home loan package charges an interest rate that moves up or down over time, typically tracking the SORA benchmark plus a bank spread, so...
Freehold and a 999 year lease are both effectively perpetual in practical terms, since 999 years is far beyond any realistic holding period or lending...
The Full Retirement Sum, FRS, is the CPF savings benchmark a member turning 55 needs set aside for a standard CPF LIFE monthly payout. For 2026 it is...
G
Government Land Sales, GLS, is how the state releases residential sites to developers, on a Confirmed List, released regardless of developer interest, and...
A Good Class Bungalow is the most restrictive category of landed housing in Singapore, located within gazetted GCB Areas under URA planning guidelines....
Gross floor area, GFA, is the total covered floor area a development is allowed to build under its plot ratio, while the strata area quoted for your...
H
Handover condition is the state a rental unit must be returned in at the end of a tenancy, usually described as the condition at the start allowing for...
HDB's flat classification framework sorts new BTO flats into three tiers, Standard, Plus and Prime, based on location attractiveness, with each tier...
HDB housing grants are CPF administered subsidies that reduce the cash and CPF needed for an HDB resale flat. The main ones are the Enhanced Housing...
An HDB resale application is the formal submission made through the HDB Resale Portal after both parties have exercised the Option to Purchase, triggering...
The HDB resale levy is a charge payable when a household that already received a housing subsidy, via a BTO, DBSS flat, or subsidised EC, buys a second...
The HFE letter, HDB Flat Eligibility letter, is the mandatory first step before buying any HDB flat, new or resale. Introduced in 2023, it combines flat...
Holding cost is everything it costs to own a property month to month beyond the mortgage principal, interest, property tax, maintenance fees, insurance...
The Home Improvement Programme, HIP, is HDB's scheme to renew essential structural and utility elements in older flats, such as spalling concrete,...
The Home Protection Scheme, HPS, is CPF Board administered mortgage reducing insurance for HDB flats bought with an HDB concessionary loan and CPF...
I
The income ceiling is the maximum average gross monthly household income a household can have to qualify for a subsidised HDB scheme, such as a BTO flat,...
An inventory list is a written and photographed record of a rental unit's condition, furniture, and fittings taken at the start of a tenancy. It becomes...
J
The Joint Singles Scheme lets a small group of unmarried, eligible Singapore Citizens buy and own an HDB flat together, without a spouse or family...
Joint tenancy is a way for two or more people to co own a Singapore property with equal, undivided shares and a right of survivorship, meaning that when...
A jumbo flat is an HDB flat formed by combining two adjacent smaller units, typically two 3 room flats, into a single larger home, a configuration HDB...
L
The Land Betterment Charge is a charge payable to the state for the increase in land value from developing, redeveloping, or changing the use of a site to...
Landlord obligations are the responsibilities a landlord takes on once a tenancy agreement is signed, generally covering handing over the unit in the...
Layout efficiency ratio, sometimes called space efficiency, is the percentage of a unit's quoted strata area that is actually usable internal living...
Lease decay is the loss in a leasehold property's value as its remaining lease shortens, driven by shrinking CPF usage and bank financing headroom as the...
Tenure describes how long a property owner holds legal rights to the land: freehold has no expiry, while leasehold, most commonly 99 years in Singapore,...
A Letter of Intent, LOI, is a document that sets out a buyer's proposed price and key terms for a property before either side signs a legally binding...
Leverage means using borrowed money, a mortgage, to control a property worth far more than the cash and CPF actually put in. It magnifies gains if the...
Loan tenure is the number of years you agree to take to repay your mortgage, commonly 20 to 30 years in Singapore. A longer tenure lowers the monthly...
A mortgage lock in period is the window, usually 2 to 3 years, during which a Singapore bank charges a penalty, commonly around 1.5 percent of the...
LTV, Loan to Value, is the maximum percentage of a property's price or valuation that a bank will lend. For a first residential loan with no other...
M
The maintenance fee, formally the management fund contribution, is the recurring charge every strata unit owner pays the MCST to run the development's day...
MCST, Management Corporation Strata Title, is the body that governs a condominium or strata landed development's common property once it is formed. It...
The minimum cash down payment is the portion of a property's down payment that must be paid in cash rather than CPF, currently at least 5 percent of the...
The monthly instalment is the amount you pay every month to repay your mortgage, made up of interest plus a portion that reduces the principal. TDSR and...
MOP, Minimum Occupation Period, is the 5 year period an HDB flat or Executive Condominium owner must live in the unit as their home before they can sell...
A mortgage is a loan from a bank or from HDB that helps you pay for a property, using the property itself as security. You borrow a large sum upfront and...
A mortgage broker compares home loan packages across several banks on your behalf and helps you apply, usually at no direct cost to you since brokers are...
Mortgage Reducing Term Assurance, MRTA, is a decreasing term life insurance policy sized to your outstanding home loan, paying out to settle the remaining...
A mortgagee sale happens when a bank forecloses on a property because the owner has defaulted on their home loan, and the bank sells the unit to recover...
MSR, Mortgage Servicing Ratio, is a tighter borrowing cap that applies only to HDB flats and Executive Condominiums, limiting the monthly housing...
N
Net sale proceeds are what a seller actually walks away with after a property sale, calculated by taking the sale price and deducting the outstanding home...
An Option to Purchase for a new launch works differently from a resale OTP: the buyer books a unit and pays a booking fee to the developer, then exercises...
The Non Citizen Spouse Scheme lets a Singapore Citizen buy an HDB resale flat together with a spouse who is neither a citizen nor a permanent resident,...
The Normal Payment Scheme is the term used for the standard milestone based payment structure for new launch private property in Singapore, contrasted...
O
An occupier is a person named on your HDB flat application who is allowed to live in the flat but does not own any share of it. An owner holds legal title...
Open booking of flats is HDB's system for selecting from unsold or unbooked flats on the HDB Flat Portal without going through a fresh ballot, generally...
Opportunity cost is the value of the next best thing given up by putting cash and CPF into a property, most often what that money could otherwise have...
The Option to Purchase, OTP, is the first binding legal document in a Singapore property transaction. The buyer pays an option fee to secure an exclusive...
Singapore applies two separate progressive property tax rate schedules to residential property: a lower, owner occupier schedule for the home you actually...
P
Partial prepayment is paying down some of your outstanding mortgage principal in a lump sum on top of regular instalments, to reduce the loan balance...
A penthouse is the top floor unit or units of a condo development, usually the largest layout in the project and sometimes a duplex or triplex with a...
Plot ratio, or Gross Plot Ratio, is the maximum buildable gross floor area allowed on a site relative to its land area, set by URA under the Master Plan....
A Power of Attorney is a legal document that lets one person, the donor, formally authorise another, the attorney, to sign documents and act on their...
Principal is the amount of money you actually borrowed for your mortgage, before interest. Each monthly instalment is split between interest owed and a...
The Progressive Payment Scheme, PPS, is the standard payment structure for buying a new launch condominium in Singapore, spreading payment across roughly...
Property tax is an annual tax IRAS charges every property owner in Singapore, calculated by applying a progressive tax rate to the property's Annual...
PSF, Per Square Foot, is the standard unit for quoting Singapore property prices, calculated as the transacted or asking price divided by the unit's floor...
R
A redemption penalty is a fee a bank can charge if you repay your entire mortgage early, usually while you are still inside the loan's lock in period...
Refinancing is switching a mortgage to a new package, usually with a different bank, once the lock in period on the current package ends, while repricing...
Remaining lease is the number of years left on a leasehold flat or property before it reverts to the state, and for HDB flats it shapes financing through...
Rental yield measures the annual rental income a property generates as a percentage of its value; gross yield divides annual rent by price or valuation...
Renting a whole unit means one tenancy for the entire property, while renting a room means the owner or another tenant continues living there and lets out...
Restructuring, formerly known as decoupling, is when one spouse in a married couple transfers their share of a jointly owned property to the other,...
S
The Sale and Purchase Agreement, or S&P, is the formal contract a developer issues after a buyer exercises the Option to Purchase on a new launch unit,...
SBF, Sale of Balance Flats, is HDB's quarterly sale of unsold or returned flats from earlier BTO exercises, often well advanced in construction or already...
Second timer status applies when someone in your household, an owner or a listed occupier, has previously received a CPF housing grant or owned a...
A security deposit is a sum a tenant pays a landlord before moving in, held as protection against unpaid rent or damage beyond fair wear and tear. In...
SERS, the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme, is a government initiated programme that redevelops selected older HDB precincts, ending affected leases...
Share value is the number assigned to each unit in a strata development under the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act, reflecting its relative...
A shoebox unit is market shorthand for a very small apartment, usually a studio or one bedroom layout with a compact floor area. There is no single...
A showflat, or show unit, is the display unit a developer fits out to represent a new launch's layout and finishes before the actual building is...
The Single Singapore Citizen Scheme lets an eligible single Singapore Citizen buy an HDB flat on their own, without a family nucleus. It comes with its...
A sinking fund is the long term capital reserve every MCST collects alongside monthly maintenance fees, set aside for major repairs and replacements the...
SORA, the Singapore Overnight Rate Average, is the benchmark interest rate published by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, calculated as the volume...
A special levy is a one off, additional charge an MCST raises on top of regular maintenance fees and the sinking fund when the reserve is not enough to...
SSD, Seller's Stamp Duty, is a tax charged when a residential property is sold within a set holding period of purchase, designed to discourage short term...
A stack is the vertical column of units in a new launch that share the same layout position on every floor, and facing is the direction a unit's main...
Stamp duty on a lease is a tax payable to IRAS on a signed tenancy agreement, calculated based on the rent payable over the lease term. Either party can...
Strata landed housing is landed property, such as a terrace or semi detached house, held under a strata title within a gated development and managed by an...
Strata title is a form of property ownership where you hold exclusive title to your individual unit, together with an undivided common share in the...
The stress test interest rate is a floor rate banks must use to check mortgage affordability even if the actual quoted rate is lower. Under TDSR, banks...
A sub sale is the sale of a new launch condominium unit before it reaches Temporary Occupation Permit, TOP. The seller is transferring their rights under...
Subletting is renting out a property, or part of it, to someone else while the original tenant or owner remains legally responsible under the head lease...
T
TDSR, Total Debt Servicing Ratio, is a Monetary Authority of Singapore rule capping all monthly debt repayments, including the new mortgage, car loans and...
A temporary extension of stay is an arrangement where a seller who has already completed the sale of their property is allowed to remain in the unit for a...
A tenancy agreement is the legal contract between landlord and tenant setting out the rent, the lease term, the security deposit, and each party's...
Tenancy in common is a way for two or more people to co own a Singapore property in defined shares, which can be equal or unequal, with no automatic right...
Tenancy renewal is extending a lease, or agreeing a fresh one, with the same tenant before the current lease ends. The renewal window, often the two or...
Tenant pool is the realistic group of people likely to want to rent a specific unit, shaped by its location, size, price point, and what demand sits...
Tenant screening is the practical process a landlord uses to check a prospective tenant before signing a lease, covering identity and pass validity,...
A title search pulls the official record for a property from the Singapore Land Authority to confirm the registered owner and reveal any mortgages,...
TOP, Temporary Occupation Permit, is issued when a new development is ready for occupation, marking the point a buyer can collect keys and move in,...
U
Unit mix is the breakdown of how many units of each size and bedroom type make up a new launch development, usually published as a count or percentage...
The URA Master Plan is Singapore's statutory land use plan, setting out what can be built where over the medium term, reviewed roughly every five years....
V
Vacancy rate is the share of time, or of units in a building or area, that sits empty and earns no rent. For a single landlord it usually means how many...
Vacant possession means a property is handed over empty of occupants, tenants, and most of the seller's belongings, and free of any right for someone else...
The Valuation Limit, VL, is the lower of the purchase price or the market valuation of a private property at the time of purchase, and it is the first...
W
A walk up apartment is a low rise private residential block, typically up to around five or six storeys, with no lift. Many sit on older sites with plot...
The Withdrawal Limit, WL, is the higher, second ceiling on CPF usage for a private property, typically 120 percent of the Valuation Limit. Once a buyer...
Z
Zoning is how the URA Master Plan classifies every parcel of land in Singapore for a permitted use, such as residential, commercial, industrial, or a mix,...