A $1,635,000 Two-Bedder In District 13 Needs $460,100 Before The Loan — And The Five-Year Hold Adds $289,255

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.

Most price headlines stop at the price. The median tells you what a unit changed hands for. It does not tell you what lands in the bank account on completion day, or what the next five years cost on top of that.

According to URA Data Service caveats, there were 36 sales of 60 to 99 sqm private units in District 13 (Macpherson, Potong Pasir, Braddell) in 2Q2026. The median was $1,635,000, or $2,077 psf at a median size of 840 sqft. That median is -0.9% against the same quarter a year earlier, when it stood at $1,650,000. We took that price and ran it through our position engine for one stated buyer: a Singapore citizen, first home, owner-occupier, aged 35, household income $18,000 a month, bank loan over 25 years.

The cash and CPF needed before the loan comes to $460,100

Start with the purchase itself. At $1,635,000, buyer's stamp duty is $51,350. Additional buyer's stamp duty is $0, at 0%, for this profile. So stamp duty in total is $51,350.

The loan is capped at $1,226,250, which is 75.0% of the price. That leaves 25% of the price to be found elsewhere. Of that, the minimum cash portion is $81,750. The remaining $327,000 can come from CPF or cash, depending on what the buyer has in the Ordinary Account.

Add the stamp duty and the figure before the loan is $460,100. Here is what stood out to us. The stamp duty alone is more than half the minimum cash component. The table below sets out the full purchase at 2Q2026's median.

The loan-to-value limit binds here, not the TDSR

Two caps apply to this buyer. The LTV cap allows $1,226,250. The TDSR cap allows $1,875,580. The lower of the two binds, so the loan size is set by the loan-to-value limit. MSR does not apply.

On that loan, the monthly instalment is $5,815 at 3%. That is 32.3% of the stated $18,000 monthly income. At the 4% stress rate used for the TDSR test, the instalment is $6,473.

The gap between the two caps is worth noting. It suggests the constraint for this profile is the deposit, not the income test. A buyer with a lower income could hit the TDSR ceiling first and be held to a smaller loan. The table below shows the loan terms as the engine computed them.

Five years of holding adds $289,255, before any change in price

The purchase is one number. The hold is another. Over five years the engine puts the total at $289,255.

Interest is the largest part at $171,162. Costs going in, covering stamp duty and fees, come to $54,620. Property tax and maintenance over the five years add $24,560. Costs coming out are $38,913.

The engine states its assumptions plainly. It assumes a sale at today's indicative mid value after five years. The seller pays 2% commission and $3,000 legal fees, plus 9% GST. Interest follows a standard amortisation schedule at 3% on the full $1,226,250 loan. Property tax uses an assumed annual value of $40,800, with maintenance at the configured norm. Set against the price, that total means the price would need to rise 18.1% over the five years to cover it. The table below breaks the hold cost down.

Change the buyer and the same price produces a very different entry cost

Everything above holds for one profile. BSD stays at $51,350 across all four profiles, because it is set by the price. ABSD is what moves.

A Singapore citizen buying a second home pays ABSD of $327,000 at 20%, for a stamp duty total of $378,350. That buyer also faces a 45.0% LTV cap, rather than 75.0%. A permanent resident buying a first home pays $81,750 at 5%, for $133,100 in total. A foreigner pays $981,000 at 60%, for $1,032,350.

So at the same $1,635,000, the stamp duty bill ranges from $51,350 to $1,032,350. These are the rates recorded as in force in our rules config, checked against IRAS and MAS publications on 18 September 2026. The newest version applied here took effect on 4 July 2025. Rates change with each round of measures, so the comparison below is a snapshot, not a fixture.

The median rests on 36 sales, and that is a small base

The figure driving all of this is a quarterly median. In 2Q2026 it came from 36 recorded sales of 60 to 99 sqm units in District 13. Median size was 840 sqft and median per area was $2,077 psf.

Thirty-six sales is a thin base. A median over that count can move on mix alone. A quarter weighted towards newer completions, higher floors or larger layouts within the band will read differently from one weighted the other way. The -0.9% move against the year-earlier median of $1,650,000 is small enough that mix could account for it. The caveats do not tell us which.

That is worth holding in mind. Every figure in this piece is indicative and computed from recorded transactions. None of it is a valuation of any home. The table below shows the sales behind the median.

What the figures do not settle is anything beyond the quarter they cover. The median is a snapshot of 36 caveats in 2Q2026. The stamp duty and LTV numbers reflect the rules recorded as in force, and those change. The 18.1% break-even figure rests on the stated assumptions, including a 3% rate and a 25-year tenure. Change the rate, the tenure, or the holding period, and the arithmetic changes with it. In next quarter's data, the two things we will be watching are the sales count in this size band and whether the median per area moves with the median price, or apart from it.

One median rarely carries much on its own. It becomes useful once you see what sits underneath it: how many sales, what sizes, and what the same price asks of different buyers. The entry cost and the five-year cost are part of the same picture as the headline figure, and reading them together tells you more than reading any one of them alone.

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$18,000 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$1,226,250 (75% of the price), the maximum available. Property tax on an assumed annual value of S$40,800 (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.