Selling A Bedok 4-Room At S$586,500 To Buy In District 16 — The Sale Nets S$327,310, The Condo Wants S$390,600

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.

Two figures sit at the centre of this one. What a flat sale puts in your hand, and what the next home asks for before the loan starts. They are not the same number here, and the order of the two transactions changes the tax bill as well. We also ran a third side, where the flat stays and gets rented out.

According to data.gov.sg HDB resale records, the median 4-room resale price in Bedok was S$397,500 in 2Q2020, across 54 sales. In 2Q2026 the median was S$586,500, across 120 sales. On the private side, URA Data Service caveats put the median price of a 60 to 99 sqm unit in District 16 at S$1,400,000 in 2Q2026, from 41 sales, at a median 926 sqft. Our position engine takes those two medians, plus the rental approvals for the flat, and works each side through. Every figure below is indicative and drawn from recorded transactions.

The flat's median has moved 47.5% in six years, and that is what the sale side turns on

Start with the purchase. The couple bought in 2Q2020 at S$397,500, the median for a Bedok 4-room that quarter. They took a 75% HDB loan, so S$298,125. Six years in, the balance is about S$243,134. The median for the same flat type in the same town is S$586,500 in 2Q2026. That is a change of S$189,000 on the medians, or 47.5%.

The rest of the sale side is short. Selling costs, agent and legal, come to about S$16,056. Seller's stamp duty is S$0 at this holding period. Net proceeds land at about S$327,310. That is the figure the other two sides get measured against, so it is worth being clear on what sits inside it. It is the median-to-median move, less the outstanding loan, less the cost of selling.

What the table below cannot carry is mix. The 54 sales in 2Q2020 and the 120 in 2Q2026 are different flats. Different blocks, different storeys, different lease remaining. The engine does not adjust for any of that. It is a position built from recorded transactions, not a valuation of any particular flat.

The condo asks for S$390,600 before the loan, and the sale does not cover it

Now the buy side. At a median of S$1,400,000, buyer's stamp duty is S$40,600. The maximum loan is S$1,050,000, at 75% LTV, and in this case LTV is the binding limit rather than income. That leaves S$70,000 as minimum cash and S$280,000 in CPF or cash. Added to the stamp duty, the amount needed before the loan is S$390,600.

Set that against the net proceeds from the flat and the engine records a shortfall of S$63,290 to find elsewhere. That is the figure shown negative in the table below. It assumes the flat is sold first and the proceeds are available in time, which is a sequencing question the data cannot settle for you.

The order matters for tax too. Buying the condo before the flat is sold brings additional buyer's stamp duty at 20%, or S$280,000, under the rules as recorded in the engine. Remissions are not modelled. Note also the count on the private side: 41 sales in the quarter for that size band in District 16. That is a thin base, and a different mix of projects or floors would pull the median around.

The monthly instalment moves from about S$1,352 to about S$4,732

The month-by-month view is the simplest table here, and often the one people look at first. On the flat, the instalment is about S$1,352. On the condo, at 3% over 27 years, it is about S$4,732. The engine puts the difference at S$3,380 a month.

It also runs both at a test rate of 4%. That is a stress figure applied to the same loan, not a view on where rates go. At the test rate, the flat instalment is S$1,524 and the condo instalment is S$5,305. The gap between the two columns widens at the higher rate, because the condo loan is the larger one.

One thing the table does not show is the rest of the monthly bill. Maintenance on the condo, property tax, and whatever the household already spends are all outside it. The instalment is the instalment, on the loan sizes and tenure stated.

The third side keeps the flat and rents it out at an estimated S$3,300 a month

The rental side uses data.gov.sg rental approvals. For a 4-room in Bedok, 58 recorded approvals give an estimated rent of S$3,300 a month, which the engine reads as a gross yield of 6.8% against the current median price.

From there the costs come off. Property tax at the non-owner-occupied rates is S$1,663 a year, on an assumed annual value of S$39,270. Maintenance is S$900 a year. After vacancy, tax and maintenance, net rent is S$33,750 a year. Interest on the remaining loan is S$6,321 a year. That leaves a net carry of S$27,429 a year, or 4.7%.

Two caveats sit under those numbers. The rent is an estimate from approvals, not a signed lease for this flat, and 58 rows is a modest base. The vacancy allowance is a configured assumption, not something observed in the approvals themselves. The table below shows each line separately so you can see which part is recorded and which part is assumed.

Five years of holding the condo carries S$251,462 in costs on the engine's assumptions

The last figure is a holding cost rather than a purchase cost. Over five years, the engine puts the total cost of holding the condo at S$251,462. Of that, S$147,708 is interest on the S$1,050,000 loan, taken from a standard amortisation schedule at 3%. The remainder covers property tax, maintenance and the cost of selling at the end. The selling assumption is 2% commission plus S$3,000 in legal fees, plus 9% GST.

The engine frames the result as a break-even. The price would need to rise 18.4% over those five years to cover the holding cost. That is arithmetic on the stated assumptions, and the exit is priced at today's indicative mid value. It is not a projection of District 16 prices.

One more note on the rules behind the tax lines. Stamp duty, ABSD, SSD, LTV and property tax rates are versioned in the engine and were checked against IRAS and MAS publications on 2026-09-18. The newest version applied here took effect on 2025-07-04. Each fresh round of measures changes those inputs.

Plenty is left open. The medians behind both sides are medians of whatever transacted, and the mix shifts each quarter. Forty-one private sales and 120 flat sales are the counts the figures rest on. The shortfall depends on the flat actually selling near S$586,500, and the rental side depends on an estimate from 58 approvals. The next quarter's data will show whether the Bedok 4-room median and the District 16 median for 60 to 99 sqm units move, and whether the transaction counts behind them hold up. The test rate column is worth watching too, since it moves with the loan size rather than with anything in the market.

Laid out this way, no single figure closes the question. The 47.5% move reads one way on its own, and differently once the S$390,600 and the S$3,380 monthly difference sit next to it. That is the point of putting three sides in one place. What each figure is worth depends on the ones printed beside it, and on where the wider market goes from here.

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. It is taken at Q2 2026's median. The buyer is 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$1,050,000 (75% of the price), the maximum available. Property tax on an assumed annual value of S$39,270 (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.