Progressive Payment Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Purchase price. The price on the Option to Purchase. The percentages are fixed, so this is the only input that scales the amounts.
2. Loan-to-value. 75% on a first housing loan, 45% on a second, 35% on a third. It falls to 55% if the tenure runs over 30 years or past your 65th birthday. If you are not sure which applies to you, theaffordability calculator works it out.

The result updates as you type.

Ten stages, fixed by law

A new launch is not paid for at completion. It is paid in ten instalments tied to construction milestones, and the percentages are set by the Housing Developers Rules rather than by the developer. Every developer, every project, the same schedule.

Two things follow from the shape of it. The front is heavy — 20% falls due within about eight weeks of the Option to Purchase, long before anything is built. Andthe back is heavy too — 40% arrives at TOP and legal completion, by which time you are usually also paying a full monthly instalment.

Where the bank takes over

This is the part almost every explanation gets wrong, including ours until recently.

Your money is spent first. You fund the whole price less your loan — 25% of it at 75% LTV — and the bank disburses nothing until that share is gone. The changeover therefore falls wherever your share runs out, which is almost never a stage boundary.

At 75% LTV on a S$1.5 million unit:

Your total is S$375,000, which is exactly 25% of the price. It could not be anything else. But "the first five stages" — the rule this tool used until it was rewritten — gives S$525,000. That is S$150,000 of cash that does not exist, and it is the kind of error people plan their finances around.

Change the LTV and the changeover moves. At 45% your 55% share runs out exactly at the end of the seventh stage, so the bank picks up from the car park and drains onwards. It lands on a boundary there by coincidence, not by rule — at 75% it falls halfway through a stage, and no fixed stage number can describe both.

Run a few what-ifs

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

Buy your second rather than your first. LTV drops from 75% to 45%, so your share goes from S$375,000 to S$825,000 on the same unit. The price has not moved at all. By far the largest lever on this page.

Stretch the tenure past 30 years. LTV drops to 55% and your share rises to S$675,000. A longer tenure lowers your monthly repayment and raises your cash requirement by S$300,000. Rarely worth the trade.

Pay cash. The whole schedule is yours and the bar has no pale section at all. Worth looking at once, because it shows how much of a new launch the bank is actually carrying.

Look at when the money is needed, not just how much. 20% inside two months, then a long quiet stretch, then 40% at the end. The middle of a build is the cheap part.

What this calculator leaves out

Three real costs sit outside the stage table, and all three land early.

Stamp duty. Due within 14 days of exercising the option, and not part of the schedule.Work out BSD and ABSD before you commit to the timeline, because they arrive at the same moment as the 15% S&P instalment.

The monthly repayment during construction. You service interest on what has been disbursed, so it grows with every milestone. Small at foundation, full-size by legal completion.

Everything at TOP. Renovation, furniture, the move, and maintenance charges that start whether you have moved in or not — all landing next to the largest instalment on the schedule.

Questions people ask

When is stamp duty due?

Within 14 days of exercising the Option to Purchase, and it is not in the stage table. On a S$1.5 million unit BSD alone is S$44,600, falling due at roughly the same time as the 15% instalment on signing the S&P. Budget for it separately.

Do I pay loan instalments during construction?

Yes, and they grow. You service interest on whatever the bank has disbursed so far, so the payment rises with each milestone until the loan is fully drawn at legal completion. This calculator shows the capital schedule, not the monthly repayments.

Can I use CPF for these stages?

Yes, for the portion you fund yourself, subject to the usual Ordinary Account rules. The booking fee at the Option to Purchase is normally paid in cash.

What happens if construction is delayed?

The milestones move with it. You pay when a stage is certified, not on a calendar, so a delayed project delays your payments too. That is not the disaster it sounds like, though it does delay your keys and everything that follows them.

Is the schedule the same for an EC?

The stage percentages are. The financing around them is not: an EC bought direct from the developer is subject to MSR, and grant timing differs. Ask before assuming this page applies to your purchase.

Why is TOP a quarter of the price in one payment?

Because that is the point at which the building becomes habitable and most of the developer’s cost has landed. It is the largest single instalment, and it arrives at the same time as your keys, your renovation quotes and your first full monthly repayment.