An Ang Mo Kio 4-Room Sells At A Median S$652,400 — But The District 20 Condo Needs S$494,000 Before The Loan

This is an illustrative example on the quarter's median prices and a stated household, not a real family and not advice on whether to sell, buy, keep or rent out. It lays out the figures the position engine computes for each side of the question; the decision is the reader's.

The part of an upgrade that gets talked about is the gain on the flat. The part that decides whether the move happens at all is usually the cash needed on the day of the purchase, and the two numbers do not always meet. That is the whole tension in this example: a flat that has appreciated a great deal, and a purchase that still comes up short before a single dollar of the new loan is drawn.

According to the HDB resale records published on data.gov.sg and the private caveats from the URA Data Service, both run through our own position engine, a 4-room flat in Ang Mo Kio had a median resale price of S$652,400 in Q2 2026 across 78 sales, against a median of S$405,000 in Q2 2020 across 38 sales. A 60 to 99 sqm private unit in District 20 had a median price of S$1,748,000 in the same quarter across 39 sales, at a median size of 904 sqft. Every figure below is indicative and drawn from recorded transactions; none of it is a valuation of any particular home.

The flat's median has moved 61.1% since the quarter it was bought, and most of that shows up as equity

Start with the side that is already done. The flat was bought in Q2 2020 at that quarter's median of S$405,000 with a 75% HDB loan, so S$303,750 of the price was borrowed. Six years later, the median for the same flat type in the same town is S$652,400, a change of S$247,400, or 61.1% on the engine's measure. That measure compares one quarter's median with another quarter's median for 4-room flats in Ang Mo Kio; it is not a like-for-like tracking of one unit, and the mix of blocks, floors and lease balances behind 38 sales in 2020 is not the mix behind 78 sales in 2026.

What the household would actually hold is the net of that. The loan balance after six years stands at about S$247,721, selling costs for agent and legal work come to about S$17,492, and seller's stamp duty is S$0 at this holding period under the rules as recorded. That leaves net proceeds of about S$387,186. The figure below is worth reading as a sequence rather than a headline: the price change is large, but roughly a quarter of the sale price is still repaying the original loan.

The table below sets out the flat side in full.

The purchase needs S$494,000 before the loan, which leaves a shortfall of S$106,814

On the buying side, the median District 20 unit at S$1,748,000 attracts buyer's stamp duty of S$57,000, with no additional buyer's stamp duty if the flat has already been sold. The maximum loan is S$1,311,000, set by the 75% loan-to-value limit rather than by income in this example. That leaves S$494,000 to be found before the loan: S$87,400 as minimum cash, and S$349,600 from CPF or cash.

Against that, the sale of the flat produces about S$387,186. The engine records the difference as a shortfall of S$106,814, shown negative in the table. That is the number this example turns on, and it is a gap in the upfront position, not in affordability over the life of the loan. It also assumes the two transactions are sequenced so that the flat's proceeds are available at the point they are needed, which in practice depends on completion dates the data cannot see.

One thing the count is worth noting on: 39 sales in the quarter is a thin base for a median, and the median size of 904 sqft sits inside a 60 to 99 sqm band that spans a fair range of unit types.

Buying before the flat is sold puts S$349,600 of additional buyer's stamp duty into the same sum

The order of the two transactions changes the arithmetic more than anything else in this pack. If the condo is bought while the flat is still held, additional buyer's stamp duty applies at 20%, or S$349,600, under the rules as recorded in our rules file. That sits on top of the S$57,000 in buyer's stamp duty, and it is a figure of the same order as the entire CPF or cash component of the purchase.

Two qualifications belong with it. Remissions are not modelled here, so the figure represents the duty payable as charged rather than what a household might ultimately bear after any refund process. And the rates themselves are versioned data: the engine's rules were checked against IRAS and MAS publications on 2026-09-18, with the newest version applied taking effect 2025-07-04. Rules of this kind are revised from time to time, and the figures move with them.

The monthly instalment moves from about S$1,378 to S$5,909, a difference of S$4,531

The month-by-month side is where the two positions separate most plainly. Keeping the flat means an instalment of about S$1,378 at the loan rate. Buying the condo, on a loan of S$1,311,000 at 3% over 27 years, means about S$5,909 — a difference of S$4,531 a month between the two lines.

The second row in the table below is the same two loans measured at a higher rate, 4% for the condo, which the engine uses as its stress rate. That is a calculation convention applied consistently to both sides, not a rate anyone is charged and not a statement about where rates go; it exists so that the instalment can be read against a harder assumption. On that measure the flat line reads S$1,553 and the condo line S$6,623.

Here is the comparison as the engine lays it out.

Holding the condo for five years costs S$313,600 in all, and the rental leg of this example returns nothing

Beyond the purchase, the engine also prices the holding period. Five years in the District 20 unit comes to S$313,600 in total cost, of which S$184,424 is mortgage interest, with the remainder covering property tax on an assumed annual value of S$45,900, maintenance at the configured norm, and a sale at the end at today's indicative mid value with 2% commission, S$3,000 in legal fees and 9% GST. Expressed as the movement needed to cover all of that, the price would have to rise 18.3% over the five years. That is a break-even measure, not a statement that any such change occurs.

The third side of this example — renting the flat out instead of selling it — is empty in this quarter's output. The engine returned no rental position for this case, so there is no indicative yield or monthly rent to set against the two columns above. Rental approvals published on data.gov.sg are the source that leg would draw on, and without it, this example compares only the sale and the purchase.

A good deal is left open here. The shortfall of S$106,814 is measured against one quarter's medians on both sides, and medians drawn from 78 flat sales and 39 private sales can move with the mix of what transacted as much as with price itself. The engine's stamp duty and loan-to-value figures reflect the rules as recorded at the dates in its rules file, and those dates matter as much as the prices. What the next quarter's data can settle is narrow but useful: whether the Ang Mo Kio 4-room median holds near S$652,400, whether the District 20 band stays near S$1,748,000 on a larger count of sales, and whether the rental leg produces a figure at all.

Read on its own, the 61.1% change on the flat tells a clean story, and the S$494,000 needed before the loan tells a different one. Neither is wrong; they are answers to different questions, and the position only makes sense when both are on the page at once. That is usually how it goes with a single headline figure in this market — it is a starting point for the arithmetic rather than the end of it, and the useful part is where it sits against everything else the quarter recorded.

Method: the flat is a 4-room in the town, bought at the median of Q2 2020 with a 75% HDB loan at 2.6% over 25 years, of which 6 years have been paid; its value today is Q2 2026's median; selling costs, seller's stamp duty, equity, the rent estimate and the carry are the position engine's under the rules recorded as in force. The condo is a 60 to 99 sqm resale in the nearest district with enough sales within 2.5 km of the town, at Q2 2026's median, bought by a citizen aged 38 with a household income of S$15,000 a month and no other debt. sale at today's indicative mid value after 5 years; seller pays 2% commission and S$3,000 legal fees, plus 9% GST; mortgage interest from a standard amortisation schedule at the given rate; loan of S$1,311,000 (75% of the price), the maximum available; property tax on an assumed annual value of S$45,900 (85% of market rent); maintenance at the configured norm. Rates are versioned data in config/rules.yaml, checked against IRAS and MAS publications on 2026-09-18; the newest version applied here took effect 2025-07-04. Rules change with each cooling-measure round. Private figures are from URA Data Service caveats, HDB figures from data.gov.sg resale records, both loaded weekly by this site's ingest. Medians are of the non-excluded transactions in the period named; sales flagged by the hygiene rules (related-party transfers, bulk deals, outliers) are left out. Every figure is indicative and drawn from recorded transactions, not a formal valuation.