A $920,000 4-Room Flat In Kallang/Whampoa Needs $309,571 Before The Loan — And Income, Not Price, Sets The Loan Limit

This is an illustrative example built on the quarter's median price and a stated buyer profile. It is not a real purchase, not a valuation of any home, and not advice on whether or how to buy. Every figure in it is computed from recorded transactions and the tax and financing rules recorded as in force.

A median price is easy to quote and hard to picture. Put a named buyer behind it and the single number splits into stamp duty, a loan limit, a cash bill and a five-year running cost. We looked at what that split looks like for a 4-room flat in Kallang/Whampoa.

According to data.gov.sg HDB resale records, 70 such flats sold in Kallang/Whampoa in 2Q2026 at a median of $920,000, up 2.2% y-o-y. From there, this site's own engine worked through the stated buyer: a citizen aged 35 on $10,000 a month, taking an HDB loan over 25 years. It puts the maximum loan at $632,629 and the five-year cost of holding at $142,559. Here's what stood out to us, step by step.

The median rests on 70 sales and sits a little above a year earlier

Everything in the example hangs on one price, so we start with where it comes from. In 2Q2026 the median for a 4-room flat in Kallang/Whampoa was $920,000. The median size was 92 sqm, and the median price per area was $10,191 psm. A year earlier the median stood at $900,000, which gives the +2.2% change in the table below.

Two cautions go with that. Seventy sales is a modest count for a quarter, so a handful of transactions can move the median in either direction. The median also says nothing about the mix of floors, remaining lease or block age within those sales. It marks the middle sale, not a typical flat. Every figure here comes from recorded transactions and is indicative, not a formal valuation of any home.

Stamp duty is small for a first-home citizen, but the cash bill before the loan is not

On the median price, buyer's stamp duty comes to $22,200. Additional buyer's stamp duty is $0, because the rate for a citizen buying a first home is 0%. The maximum loan works out to 68.8% of the price. That leaves $287,371 to be paid in CPF or cash. No minimum cash applies to this buyer, so the whole balance can come from either source.

Add the stamp duty to that balance and the total before the loan is $309,571. The table below lists each line. This is the amount due at the point of purchase. Other costs of buying are counted separately in the five-year table later in the piece, so they are not stacked on top of this total. Nothing in the figures shows how a given buyer would split the balance between CPF and cash.

The mortgage servicing ratio, not the price or the loan-to-value cap, sets the loan limit

The engine tests the loan against three limits. The loan-to-value cap of 75% on an HDB loan over 25 years would allow $690,000. The total debt servicing ratio would allow $1,159,820. The mortgage servicing ratio allows $632,629, the lowest of the three, so that is the limit that binds. It points to income, rather than price, as the tight constraint for this buyer.

The monthly instalment at 3% is $3,000, which is 30.0% of the stated $10,000 monthly income. The stress rate used for the servicing test is also 3%, so the instalment is the same under both. The table below sets out each limit. We would add that the result belongs to this one profile. A different income or age would give different limits, and the data here does not show them.

Holding the flat for five years costs $142,559 before any change in price

The five-year table adds up what it costs to own the flat for that long. Interest is the largest line at $88,303. Costs going in are $25,470, and costs coming out are $23,326. Property tax and maintenance together come to $5,460. The total cost of the hold is $142,559. On the engine's arithmetic, the price would need to rise 15.8% over the five years to cover that.

The assumptions matter, so here they are. The sale is set at today's indicative mid value after five years. The seller pays 2% commission and $3,000 in legal fees, plus 9% GST. Interest follows a standard amortisation schedule at 3% on the maximum loan. Property tax uses an assumed annual value of $16,800. No rent enters the sum, as this is an owner-occupier example. Change any assumption and the total changes with it.

Buyer profile moves the stamp duty far more than the price does

The last table holds the price at $920,000 and changes only the buyer. Buyer's stamp duty is $22,200 for every profile. What differs is the additional duty. A citizen buying a first home pays $22,200 in total. A citizen buying a second home pays $206,200, with ABSD of $184,000 at 20%. A permanent resident buying a first home pays $68,200, with ABSD of $46,000 at 5%.

A foreigner pays $574,200, with ABSD of $552,000 at 60%. The loan-to-value cap also differs. It is 45.0% for the citizen's second home and 75.0% for the other three profiles. The rates are versioned rules in the engine, checked against IRAS and MAS publications. They change as rules change, so the table shows the position under the rules recorded as in force.

Several things stay open. The example fixes one buyer, one income, one loan type and one rate. It also rests on a median of 70 sales, which a different quarter could shift. When the 3Q2026 resale records arrive, the first check is whether the median price and the sales count move, since every figure above follows from that price. A new set of rules would change the stamp duty and loan lines on its own.

One headline figure is rarely enough. A median, a stamp duty bill or a five-year cost tells you little until you set it beside the others. The value lies in how the pieces fit together, and in how that picture compares with the broader direction of the market from one quarter to the next.

Method: an illustrative example, not a real purchase. The price is the median of the quarter's recorded sales named. The buyer is a Singapore citizen first-time owner-occupier aged 35. The stated household income is S$10,000 a month, with no other debt. The loan is the maximum, over 25 years at 3%. Stamp duty, loan limits, instalments and the five-year hold cost are computed by this site's position engine under the rules recorded as in force for the quarter. The rule versions used are bsd 2023-02-15, absd 2023-04-27, ssd 2025-07-04, ltv 2024-08-20, tdsr 2022-09-30, property_tax 2025-01-01, costs 2020-01-01. Further assumptions: 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$632,629 (69% of the price), the maximum available. Property tax on an assumed annual value of S$16,800 (35% 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.