Heads up—there’s been some significant updates to the Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) for residential properties, just announced by the Government. It’s a clear “cooling measure” meant to stymie the ever-increasing trajectory of property prices in the market.
While the changes are a significant shock to the system, they aren’t exactly that far-ranging, given that they only affect a certain segment of the market. That said, they will certainly affect market behaviour and dynamics—but how much so? How will it affect property prices? How will you be impacted?
We break down all the deets of the latest announcement and its implications.
Extension of SSD holding period & higher SSD rates for residential properties
As you may know, the Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) is essentially a fee that property sellers have to pay within a specified period after purchase. This follows a tiered percentage system based on the actual price or market value (whichever is higher), and if you sell after a specified holding period, you will not be subject to any SSD. In 2017, this holding period was reduced from 4 to 3 years, and the SSD rates were also reduced by four percentage points for each tier of the holding period.
Image credit: Monocot Studio
However, according to the Government, the next few years saw a sharp increase in the number of private residential property transactions with short holding periods. In particular, there has been a significant increase in the sub-sale of units that have not been completed; this essentially refers to scenarios where sellers are selling the Option-to-Purchase (OTP) document to cash in on an immediate profit, or capitalising on hype to flip properties before they are even officially completed.
To curb this speculative buying and flipping culture, it’s just been announced that the Government will be reverting to pre-2017 rules, meaning that the holding period will now return to 4 years, and SSD rates will be raised by four percentage points for each tier of the holding period.
Here’s how the new rates will look like:
Information sourced from: Ministry of National Development
Measure designed to disincentivise speculation & flipping
It’s no surprise that the property market we’re in has been in a bit of a bubble as of late, especially for private property. For very popular private condo launches, it’s not even uncommon to witness people successfully balloting and obtaining the OTP in the morning, and then selling it off to another buyer in the evening, at a very handsome profit.
Image credit: Pasir Ris 8
This has given rise to more sub-sales happening in recent years; according to news reports online, data from the Urban Redevelopment Authority shows that between 2020 and 2025, there has been an average of 220 sub-sale transactions for non-landed private homes—higher than the 88 from 2015 to 2020. There has also been a significant jump in sellers who sold their homes after holding them for between 3 to 4 years, from 358 in 2020 to 2,104 in 2024.
What this does is drastically (and somewhat artificially) increase property prices, because more and more buyers are essentially buying properties just to flip them in a short period of time, instead of being genuine owner-occupiers or even holding them for a long period to rent out. Think of it as a sort of preventive action—to stop a bubble from forming.
So, how will this affect me?
If you currently own a HDB or Executive Condominium (EC)…
Then this announcement will not affect you. That’s because HDB flats and ECs come with a Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) of 5 years, and since you can’t sell before that, you are not subject to SSD anyway.
If you recently purchased a private property…
A key caveat to note is that the revised rates apply to all residential property purchased on and after 4th July 2025. This means that if you purchased property before this date—like last month or even last week—the changes would not apply to you. You are still subject to the old rates of between 4% to 12%, and for 3 years only.
Realistically, only a limited impact on the market
This latest announcement doesn’t really result in direct, tangible changes to the trend of property prices. Rather, it’s meant to influence market behaviour—in this case, that property should be viewed primarily as a home rather than a quick investment vehicle. According to property watchers, the changes will likely have minimal impact on investors and homeowners with medium- to long-term horizons, and may even contribute to greater confidence as the market is protected against speculative swings.
Think of it as a gentle touch, rather than a hard slap.
More cooling measures on the horizon?
All in all, as far as cooling measures go, most feel that this latest announcement is fairly muted. It is a shock to the system, but nothing groundbreaking that will significantly result in a drastic decrease in prices over the next year or so.
In fact, what the market was probably expecting was something different altogether. Earlier in May, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat teased that the Government may review or remove the 15-month wait-out period imposed on private property owners seeking to downgrade, when prices of public housing resale flats begin to moderate. This was the move that people were expecting—though it hasn’t happened… yet.
Of course, there are other mechanisms that the Government can adjust to moderate property prices, particularly on the demand side. For instance, there can be a lowering of the Loan-to-Value (LTV) limit, which was done previously in August 2024. Or, there can be an increase in the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) to further disincentivise buyers other than owner-occupiers.
And of course, a very heavy-handed approach would be to introduce an MOP restriction to private housing as well, which would be a very significant shift that could rock the property market.
With continuing concerns about record-high property prices and the affordability of homes, we will probably see another round of cooling measures introduced.
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Cover image adapted from: Ming Architects
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