Buying At Ang Mo Kio's $652,400 Median Takes $177,272 Before The Loan — And Five Years Of Holding Adds $108,692

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 tells you where the market sat, but not what it takes to stand there. Once stamp duty, loan limits and holding costs enter, the figure on the listing is only one line of several.

According to data.gov.sg HDB resale records, the median 4-room flat in Ang Mo Kio sold for $652,400 in 2Q2026, across 78 sales. That is +8.7% y-o-y against $600,000 in the same quarter a year earlier. We then ran this site's position engine on that price for a 35-year-old citizen buying a first home on an income of $10,000 a month. Stamp duty comes to $14,172, the loan limit is $489,300 and the monthly instalment is $2,320. Here's what stood out to us.

The median rests on 78 sales and sits above where it was a year earlier

Start with the sales behind the price. Ang Mo Kio recorded 78 sales of this flat type in 2Q2026, with a median of $652,400 and a median size of 93 sqm. The median per area was $6,667 psm. A year earlier the median was $600,000, which puts the y-o-y change at +8.7%.

A median is one middle sale, not a typical flat. It does not show differences in floor level, block or remaining lease among the 78 sales. It also does not show whether the mix of flats changed between the two quarters. So the +8.7% describes the middle price, and it is indicative only, drawn from recorded transactions rather than any formal valuation. The worked example below uses this median as its purchase price, which is why we show the sales table first.

Stamp duty is $14,172 and the cash needed before the loan is $177,272

For a Singapore citizen buying a first home, the stamp duty at $652,400 is buyer's stamp duty of $14,172. Additional buyer's stamp duty is $0, because the rate for this profile is 0%. The total stamp duty is therefore $14,172.

The loan takes up to $489,300, which is 75.0% of the price. The rest of the price is $163,100, payable in CPF or cash. No minimum cash applies in this case. Add the stamp duty to the $163,100 and the total before the loan is $177,272. This figure leaves out legal fees, renovation and moving costs, which sit outside the table below. It also assumes the buyer takes the full loan the rules allow. A smaller loan would shift the split between the loan and CPF or cash.

The loan-to-value limit, not income, sets the borrowing ceiling

The example uses an HDB loan over 25 years. Three tests each give a ceiling. The loan-to-value limit allows $489,300. The TDSR test allows $1,159,820. The MSR test allows $632,629. The lowest of the three binds, and here that is the loan-to-value limit at 75%.

That tells us the income of $10,000 a month is not what holds the loan back in this case. The monthly instalment at 3% is $2,320, or 23.2% of the stated income. The stress rate for the servicing test is also 3%, so the instalment at the stress rate is the same $2,320. A buyer on a lower income or a different loan type would meet different ceilings. The table below shows each limit side by side, along with the instalment.

Holding the flat for five years costs $108,692 in all

The five-year hold adds up four parts. Costs going in are $17,442, covering stamp duty and fees. Interest over five years is $68,297. Property tax and maintenance come to $5,460. Costs coming out, when the flat is sold, are $17,492. The total cost of the hold is $108,692.

Interest is the largest piece by a wide margin. The calculation sells the flat after five years at today's indicative mid value. The seller pays 2% commission and $3,000 in legal fees, plus 9% GST. Interest follows a standard amortisation schedule at 3% on the $489,300 loan. Property tax uses an assumed annual value of $16,800. On those terms, the price would need to rise 17.0% over the five years to cover the total. That is a measure of the cost, not a statement about where prices are heading.

The same price carries very different stamp duty depending on who is buying

Buyer's stamp duty is $14,172 for every profile at this price. What differs is the additional buyer's stamp duty. A citizen buying a first home pays $0 at 0%, for a total of $14,172. A citizen buying a second home pays $130,480 at 20%, for a total of $144,652. A permanent resident buying a first home pays $32,620 at 5%, for a total of $46,792.

A foreigner pays $391,440 at 60%, for a total of $405,612. The loan-to-value cap also differs. It is 75.0% for the citizen first home, the permanent resident and the foreigner, and 45.0% for the citizen second home. These are the rules recorded as in force, applied to one price. The table below shows how much the profile matters next to the price itself.

The figures leave a lot open. This is one flat type in one town at one median, with one buyer profile and a 3% rate used for both the instalment and the stress test. The 78 sales will be replaced by a new set in the next quarter's data.gov.sg release, so the median, the loan limit and the hold cost will all move with it. The rules are versioned, and a change to any of them would change the stamp duty and loan lines directly.

A single headline, whether a median or a stamp duty bill, rarely tells you enough by itself. Its value lies in how it sits against the wider direction of the market, and in what the other lines in the table are doing alongside it. We will keep reading them together.

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$489,300 (75% 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.