Buying A District 7 Home At Q2 2026's Median Of S$1,590,000: What It Costs

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 one thing. What a purchase takes in cash is another. Stamp duty, the loan cap and the cash share all follow from the price. So do the costs of holding the home.

In this article, we look at one worked example in District 7 (Bugis, Beach Road, Golden Mile). We cover stamp duty, the loan limit and the cash needed at purchase. We also show the five-year cost and stamp duty for other buyer profiles.

The median price of a 60 to 99 sqm private unit in the district was S$1,590,000 in Q2 2026. That works out to about 818 sqft. The price data comes from URA Data Service caveats for private homes.

What Does The Purchase Look Like?

The buyer in this example is a Singapore citizen, aged 35, buying a first home to live in. Household income is S$18,000 a month. The loan is a bank loan over 25 years.

The table below sets out the purchase at that price.

Stamp duty comes to S$49,100 in total. ABSD is S$0, at a rate of 0% for this profile. Minimum cash is S$79,500. A further S$318,000 is payable in CPF or cash. With stamp duty, the total before the loan is S$446,600.

How Much Can The Loan Cover?

Two caps apply here. One comes from the LTV limit. The other comes from the TDSR test.

The table below shows both, and the instalment that follows.

The LTV cap allows S$1,192,500, which is 75.0% of the price. The TDSR test allows S$1,875,580. The lower figure binds, so the loan limit is S$1,192,500. MSR does not apply to this purchase.

At 3%, the monthly instalment is S$5,655. That is 31.4% of the stated income. At the 4% stress rate used for the TDSR test, the instalment is S$6,294.

What Five Years Of Holding Costs

Costs do not stop at the purchase. Interest, tax, maintenance and the costs of selling all count.

The table below adds them up over five years.

The total is S$288,173. Interest makes up S$166,451 of that. Property tax and maintenance come to S$31,420. Costs going in are S$52,370, and costs coming out are S$37,932.

On the stated assumptions, the price would need to rise 18.5% over the five years to cover that total. The assumptions include a sale after five years, a 2% seller commission and S$3,000 in legal fees, plus 9% GST. Interest follows a standard amortisation schedule at 3%. Property tax is figured on an assumed annual value of S$59,160.

Stamp Duty By Buyer Profile

Stamp duty at the same price depends on who is buying. BSD is the same in every row below. ABSD is what differs.

The table below compares four profiles at S$1,590,000.

A citizen buying a second home pays S$318,000 in ABSD, for a total of S$367,100. A permanent resident buying a first home pays S$79,500, for a total of S$128,600. A foreigner pays S$954,000, for a total of S$1,003,100.

Note that the LTV cap also differs. It is 45.0% in the citizen second-home row, against 75.0% in the other three.

The Sales Behind The Median

The median used here is drawn from the quarter's recorded sales in the district.

The table below shows the count and the size behind it.

There were 23 sales in Q2 2026. The median per area was S$2,137 psf, and the median size was 818 sqft. The median a year earlier was S$1,646,000, and no change figure is shown for the year.

With 23 sales in the quarter, the median can shift with the mix of units sold. A quarter with larger or newer units will read differently from one without.

Key Takeaways

At the Q2 2026 median of S$1,590,000 in District 7, this buyer faces S$49,100 in stamp duty. The loan caps at S$1,192,500 under the LTV limit. Before the loan, S$446,600 is due in stamp duty, cash and CPF. The instalment is S$5,655 a month at 3%, or S$6,294 at the 4% stress rate.

Five years of holding adds up to S$288,173 on the stated assumptions. All of these figures are indicative and built from recorded transactions and the tax and financing rules recorded as in force. They are not a valuation of any home. The data also cannot tell you what a particular unit would fetch, or how the mix of sales may change from quarter to quarter.

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$1,192,500 (75% of the price), the maximum available. Property tax on an assumed annual value of S$59,160 (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.