HDB Resale Outlay Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. HDB valuation. Request it after you have the Option to Purchase. Both your loan and your CPF withdrawal are sized against this number, not against what you agreed to pay.
2. COV. The gap between what you agreed and what HDB valued. Paid in cash, in full. No loan, grant or CPF reaches it.
3. CPF Ordinary Account you will use. Everything except the COV can come from your OA. Put in what you are actually willing to spend — money that leaves the OA stops earning interest, and has to be refunded with accrued interest when you sell.
4. CPF housing grant. The total across every grant you qualify for. The calculator applies what you enter; it does not test eligibility.
5. Loan amount approved. From your HDB Loan Eligibility letter or your bank's In-Principle Approval — not what you hope to get.

The result updates as you type.

Why the valuation is the number that matters

You agree a price first and find out the valuation afterwards. That ordering is the whole problem, and it produces the one number in an HDB resale purchase that behaves differently from everything else.

The loan follows the valuation, not the price. An HDB concessionary loan or a bank loan is a percentage of the valuation. Agree S$570,000 on a flat valued at S$550,000 and the lender still works from S$550,000.

CPF follows the valuation too. The Ordinary Account can fund the purchase up to the valuation limit. Above it, you are on your own.

COV is therefore pure cash. Not CPF, not loan, not grant. It is the one line on this page that has to exist in your bank account on the day.

Stamp duty follows the price. This is the trap. Duty is charged on the transacted price — valuation plus COV — even though nothing else is. A COV does not cost you the COV. It costs the COV plus the extra duty it drags along with it.

How we calculate it

up front = (valuation + COV + BSD + legal + admin) − grant − loan

The cash and CPF split is then worked out on top of that figure. The COV is carved out first, because CPF cannot touch it. Whatever your Ordinary Account covers of the rest comes out of CPF, and the remainder is cash.

Run a few what-ifs

The number on its own tells you less than the gaps between numbers.

Agree a COV. S$20,000 of COV costs S$20,600, because stamp duty follows the price up. Worth remembering when a seller asks for "just twenty".

Take the grant out. For an eligible first-timer couple the grants are the largest single lever on this page — larger than the COV, and usually larger than the difference between two flats. Check eligibility before you fall in love with a flat that disqualifies you.

Pay in cash rather than CPF. Move the CPF field to zero and the headline does not change at all — only the split does. That is the point of the chart: the bill is the bill, and CPF only decides which pocket it comes out of. What it does change is the accrued interest you owe yourself when you sell.

Borrow less. Every dollar you do not borrow is a dollar you need on the day. Obvious, and still the thing people forget when they pick a shorter tenure to save interest.

What this calculator leaves out

This tool totals the purchase. Three things sit outside it, and each has caught someone out:

Grant eligibility. The calculator applies whatever grant figure you enter. It does not check income ceilings, first-timer status, the flat's remaining lease, or the proximity conditions. Enter a grant you have not confirmed and the number is fiction.

Everything after completion. Renovation, furniture, the move, fire insurance, and the monthly repayment itself. Theaffordability calculator handles the repayment; the rest is your own list.

The lease. A flat with a short remaining lease restricts how much CPF you can use and how long a loan you can get. If the lease will not cover the youngest buyer to age 95, that is a conversation before an offer, not after.

Questions people ask

Is the COV really cash?

Yes. No loan, no grant and no CPF reaches it. If you have agreed a Cash Over Valuation, that money has to be sitting in your bank account on completion day. It is the single line on this page that cannot be financed.

When do I actually pay all this?

Not all at once. The option fee comes first, then the option exercise fee, then stamp duty within 14 days of exercising the option, then the balance on completion about eight weeks later. This calculator totals the bill rather than scheduling it.

Does the grant come to me?

No. CPF housing grants go into your Ordinary Account and are applied to the purchase. You never see the cash, which is why the calculator deducts them from the bill rather than adding them to your funds.

Can I use CPF for the stamp duty?

On a resale the timing usually does not work: duty falls due within a fortnight of exercising the option, and CPF disburses on completion. Most buyers pay it in cash and reimburse themselves afterwards. Budget it as cash.

What if the valuation comes in below what I agreed?

Then you have a COV, whether or not you called it that. The gap between the agreed price and the valuation is cash, and it is the most common reason a resale purchase falls apart between the option and completion.

Does this include renovation?

No. Nothing here covers renovation, furniture, the move, or the fire insurance HDB requires. Those are real costs and they are not small — budget for them separately.