Selling A Yishun 4-Room At $545,000 To Buy A District 27 Condo — The Sums Leave A $46,623 Shortfall

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.

A flat that has gained $170,000 on paper still has to clear a second set of numbers before it becomes a condo. That is the tension here. The gain is real, the net proceeds are real, and the cash needed at the other end is larger than both.

According to data.gov.sg HDB resale records and URA Data Service caveats, a 4-room in Yishun transacted at a median of $375,000 in 2Q2020 (118 sales) and $545,000 in 2Q2026 (183 sales). A 60 to 99 sqm private unit in District 27 had a median of $1,250,000 in 2Q2026, from 44 sales. Our position engine runs the household's three sides from those medians: what the sale nets, what the purchase costs to enter and hold, and what the flat would earn as a rental instead. Every figure below is indicative, computed from recorded transactions.

The flat has gained 45.3% since 2Q2020, but the loan and the selling costs take a share first

Start with the side that looks simplest. The median moved from $375,000 to $545,000, a change of $170,000, or +45.3% over six years. That is the headline most owners carry in their heads.

The engine then works down the column. The original HDB loan at 75% was $281,250, and the balance after six years is about $229,372. Selling costs, agent and legal, come to about $15,151. Seller's stamp duty is $0 at six years held. What is left is about $300,477 in net proceeds.

One caveat on the medians. The 2026 figure rests on 183 sales across all of Yishun, the 2020 figure on 118. Neither is a single flat, and neither accounts for storey, lease remaining or renovation. The table below sets out the full working.

The condo needs $347,100 before the loan, and the sale does not cover it

The second side is the purchase. At a median of $1,250,000 across 44 sales, with a median size of 915 sqft, buyer's stamp duty is $34,600. The maximum loan is $937,500, set by the 75% LTV limit rather than by income in this example.

That leaves $62,500 in minimum cash and $250,000 in CPF or cash. Added to the stamp duty, the engine puts $347,100 as the amount needed before the loan. Against $300,477 from the flat, the shortfall is $46,623, to be found from somewhere else.

There is a second row worth reading carefully. If the condo is bought before the flat is sold, additional buyer's stamp duty applies at 20%, or $250,000, under the rules as recorded. Remissions are not modelled here. The sequence of the two transactions changes the entry cost by that full amount.

The monthly instalment moves from about $1,276 to about $4,225

Month to month, the gap is the part the household feels. The flat's instalment sits at about $1,276. The condo's instalment at 3% over 27 years is about $4,225. The engine puts the difference at $2,949 a month.

The second line in the table is a test rate, applied at 4%. On that basis the flat's instalment is $1,438 and the condo's is $4,736. The test rate is a stress assumption the engine applies, not a view on where rates go.

Note what the table does not carry. It shows instalments only. Condo maintenance fees, property tax at owner-occupier rates and any renovation are outside this comparison. The two columns are like for like on the mortgage line alone.

Renting the flat out instead produces a net carry of $25,161 a year

The third side leaves the flat where it is. Rental approvals in the data give an estimated rent of $3,050 a month, drawn from 12 recorded approvals. That is a thin base, and we would read it as indicative rather than firm.

On the median price now, the gross yield is 6.7%. The engine then subtracts the running costs: property tax at non-owner-occupied rates of $1,537 a year, maintenance of $900 a year, and an allowance for vacancy. Net rent a year comes to $31,125. Interest on the remaining loan takes $5,964. The net carry is $25,161 a year, or 4.6%.

That path keeps the $229,372 loan balance in place and does not release the $300,477. It also sits under HDB's rules on renting out a whole flat, which the engine does not model beyond the rental approvals themselves. The table below shows each line.

Holding the condo for five years costs $225,208, of which $131,882 is interest

The engine runs one more calculation on the purchase side. Across five years of holding the condo, total costs come to $225,208. Interest makes up $131,882 of that.

From there it works out what the price would have to do to cover those costs on exit: a rise of 18.4%. That is a break-even figure computed from the holding costs, the selling costs and the assumed sale at today's indicative mid value. It is not a projection of what District 27 prices do next.

The assumptions behind it are stated. Seller pays 2% commission and $3,000 in legal fees, plus 9% GST. Mortgage interest follows a standard amortisation schedule at the given rate on a loan of $937,500. Property tax assumes an annual value of $34,680, set at 85% of market rent, with maintenance at the configured norm.

Plenty stays open. The 2Q2026 medians rest on 183 HDB sales and 44 private caveats, and a median is not a quote on any one unit. The rent estimate comes from 12 approvals, which is few enough that one quarter's mix can move it. The stamp duty and LTV rates are versioned in our rules file, checked against IRAS and MAS publications, with the newest version applied here taking effect on 4 July 2025. Those rates change by announcement, not by quarter. Next quarter's data will show whether the Yishun median holds above $545,000, whether District 27's 60 to 99 sqm band stays near $1,250,000, and whether the approvals base behind the $3,050 rent grows.

What strikes us, rereading the four tables, is how little any one of them settles. The 45.3% gain is a true figure and so is the $46,623 shortfall, and they describe the same household in the same quarter. The value is not in picking the line that sounds best. It is in seeing all three sides measured the same way, in the same period, and then reading them against where the wider market has been heading.

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$937,500 (75% of the price), the maximum available. Property tax on an assumed annual value of S$34,680 (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.