Seller’s Stamp Duty in Singapore: Rates and the Four-Year Rule

Seller’s Stamp Duty on residential property now runs from 16% down to 4% across a four-year holding period. That schedule applies only to property purchased on or after 4 July 2025. Buy before that date and the older three-year schedule of 12%, 8% and 4% still governs your sale.

Which set of rates applies depends on when you bought, not on when you sell. In August 2026 that means most sellers are still on the old schedule, and a minority who bought in the past year face rates four percentage points higher over an extra year.

Two schedules are live at the same time

The Government announced the change on 3 July 2025: the holding period rose from three years to four, and every tier rose by four percentage points. It took effect for all residential properties purchased on and after 4 July 2025, with no transition period.

Holding period	Bought 11 Mar 2017 to 3 Jul 2025	Bought on or after 4 Jul 2025
Up to 1 year	12%	16%
More than 1 to 2 years	8%	12%
More than 2 to 3 years	4%	8%
More than 3 to 4 years	Nil	4%
More than 4 years	Nil	Nil

The new schedule is not new in substance. It restores the rates and the four-year period that applied between 14 January 2011 and 10 March 2017.

Two sellers can therefore complete identical sales in the same month and owe very different amounts. On a $1.8 million sale:

Bought	Held	Rate	SSD payable
March 2024	2y 5m	4%	$72,000
September 2025	11 months	16%	$288,000

The gap is $216,000 on the same price, produced entirely by the purchase date and the length of the hold.

What counts as your date of acquisition

The holding period runs from your acquisition date, and IRAS defines it as the earliest of the documents that committed you, not the day you collected keys. In most cases that is:

• the date you accepted the Option to Purchase, unless that option was subject to the signing of the sale and purchase agreement
• the date of the sale and purchase agreement
• the date of the agreement for lease, for a new HDB flat
• the date of transfer, where none of the above applies

Two consequences follow. A buyer who accepted an OTP in late June 2025 and only completed months later still sits on the old schedule, because acquisition was the acceptance. A buyer who was granted an option before 4 July 2025 but accepted it on or after that date falls under the revised schedule.

Some acquisitions carry their own date. An interest inherited takes the date the deceased acquired it. An interest transferred on divorce, where the transfer meets the matrimonial proceedings remission rules, takes the later of the date of the marriage that ended or the date the transferor acquired the interest. Both rules can put you past the holding period on a property you have owned for months.

What the change did not alter

The mechanics are unchanged, and they are where the surprises sit.

SSD is charged on the higher of the selling price or the market value at the date of sale or disposal. The duty is rounded down to the nearest dollar, subject to a minimum of $1.

It applies to residential property and residential land acquired on or after 20 February 2010 and disposed of within the holding period. Where you acquired parts of a property at different times, the holding period for each part runs from its own acquisition date. Where you dispose of only a partial interest, the duty is based on the higher of the price or market value of that partial interest, which is what makes SSD a live issue in a decoupling.

Exemptions and remissions exist under the Stamp Duties Act and the remission rules. They are specific and worth checking against your circumstances rather than assumed.

The payment deadline is the cash flow problem

SSD must be paid within 14 days from the date of the executed sale contract, and IRAS does not allow deferment.

Completion on a private sale usually falls eight to twelve weeks after the contract. The duty therefore falls due well before the buyer’s money reaches you, and CPF cannot be used to pay it. On the 16% tier of a $1.8 million sale, that is $288,000 in cash inside two weeks of signing, funded from savings or borrowing rather than from the sale.

A seller who plans to roll the proceeds straight into a replacement property has to hold that sum separately. Our condo buying costs calculator shows the SSD owed at each holding period alongside the upfront cost of the next purchase, so you can see both sides of a move at once.

For property under collective sale the 14 days run from the executed collective sale contract, though IRAS may consider a waiver of the late-payment penalty in defined circumstances if the contract is stamped and the request submitted within that window.

Where SSD bites, and where it does not

SSD is mostly a private property matter. The five-year minimum occupation period on an HDB flat is longer than either holding period, so an owner who has served their MOP is already clear of SSD. The HDB selling costs guide covers the fees that do apply to a flat sale.

It bites hardest in four situations:

1. A short private hold. Any sale inside four years on a post-4 July 2025 purchase, where the first-year rate is 16%.
2. A decoupling. Transferring a partial interest is a disposal, and the duty is charged on that interest.
3. A forced move. Job relocation, a change in household circumstances or a need to release cash does not stop the clock.
4. A new launch flipped near completion. Acquisition dates from the option, so a unit bought off-plan and sold soon after TOP may still be inside the period.

Buying under one name to preserve a first-timer position has an SSD consequence that ABSD planning tends to overlook. Our ABSD guide sets out the entry-side rates, and the Buyer’s Stamp Duty guide works the bands for the purchase that follows.

SSD can eat into an ABSD refund

A married couple buying a second residential property can claim remission of the ABSD they paid, provided they sell the first property inside the window the remission rules set. That deadline is fixed and short, and missing it forfeits the refund entirely.

If the first property was itself bought recently, the sale that the remission deadline forces may land inside the SSD holding period. The couple then recover ABSD on the purchase and pay SSD on the sale, and the two do not offset each other cleanly. SSD falls due within 14 days of signing the sale contract, while the ABSD refund arrives after the sale completes and every condition is met.

Sequence both duties before committing to the second purchase rather than after. Our ABSD remission guide covers the deadline and the conditions attached to it.

Checks before you commit to a sale

Settle these before you grant an option:

1. Find your acquisition date from the option or the sale and purchase agreement, not from the completion date or the TOP date.
2. Confirm which schedule that date puts you on, and count the months to the next tier boundary.
3. Price the duty at the higher of your expected price and a current valuation.
4. Confirm you can fund it in cash within 14 days of signing, separately from the proceeds.

Waiting out a tier boundary is sometimes worth more than any price you can negotiate. On a $1.8 million sale under the new schedule, crossing from the third year into the fourth cuts the duty from $144,000 to $72,000, and crossing out of the fourth year removes it. Check the date before you accept an offer.

Sources: IRAS, Seller’s Stamp Duty for residential property, IRAS, stamp duty rates.