Decoupling a private home

How decoupling works

1. The co-owners agree a price for the leaving owner’s share, at market value. IRAS charges stamp duty on the higher of the price and the market value of the share.
2. The owner who keeps the home buys the share, usually with a new home loan in their name alone, and pays the stamp duty.
3. The sale proceeds repay the leaving owner’s part of the home loan and refund the CPF they used, with accrued interest, to their Ordinary Account. They keep the rest.
4. Once the transfer completes, the leaving owner owns no home and can buy the next one as their first.

HDB flats cannot be decoupled

HDB does not allow a resale of part-share between a married couple. Other part-share sales, such as between a parent and child, need the flat to have met its minimum occupation period and the buyer to be eligible to buy a flat. After a divorce, one party can buy the other’s share if the divorce was finalised after the MOP and the divorce document says the share is to be resold to them.

Stamp duty on the share

• Buyer’s Stamp Duty is always payable on the share, at the normal rates on its price or market value.
• ABSD: IRAS counts the share as one more property for the buyer. A Singapore Citizen who owns only this home pays no ABSD on it. After IRAS’s remission, a citizen who owns one other home pays 20%, and a Permanent Resident pays 5% if this is their only home or 30% if they own one other.
• Without a remission, a citizen who owns two or more other homes pays 30%, a Permanent Resident 35% and a foreigner 60%.
• Seller’s Stamp Duty: the seller pays it on the share if it is sold within the holding period, 4 years for homes bought on or after 4 July 2025 and 3 years for homes bought from 11 March 2017 to 3 July 2025.
• The owner who keeps the home starts a new SSD holding period on the share they bought, so selling the home soon after can bring SSD on that share.

The CPF refund and the loan

• The leaving owner must refund the CPF they used for the home, with accrued interest, to their CPF account. For a share sold to a co-owner, CPF works the refund out from the share price less the seller’s part of the outstanding loan.
• If the share is sold at market value and the proceeds do not cover the refund, the seller refunds what the proceeds allow and does not top up the rest in cash.
• The owner who keeps the home usually needs the whole loan in their own name. The bank assesses their income alone against MAS’s Total Debt Servicing Ratio, so check the loan before agreeing the sale.

When decoupling pays

A couple who buy a second home together pay ABSD on its whole price at the higher of their rates: 20% for two citizens, 30% if one is a Permanent Resident. Bought by the leaving owner alone after decoupling, a citizen pays none and a Permanent Resident 5%. Decoupling pays when that saving is larger than the BSD on the share, any SSD and the fees. A married couple with a citizen who will sell their current home can instead buy the next one together, pay the ABSD and claim it back by selling the first home within 6 months of buying the second, or of its TOP if it is still being built.

What IRAS looks for

IRAS charges stamp duty on the higher of the price and the market value, so a share sold below market value saves nothing. It audits arrangements made to avoid ABSD, such as the two-step “99-to-1” purchase, where a buyer later sells a 1% share to someone with a higher ABSD rate. In February 2025 two owners were sentenced to two weeks’ jail for giving IRAS false and misleading information during one of those audits.

Questions

Sources

• IRAS: Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD)
• IRAS: Acquisition of additional interest in a property the buyer has interest in
• IRAS: Remission of ABSD for a married couple
• IRAS: Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) for residential property
• IRAS: First convictions in a “99-to-1” Stamp Duty audit (28 Feb 2025)
• HDB: Resale of part-share
• CPF: Refund when selling or transferring property

Rules and fees change. Check the linked official pages before you commit, and ask a lawyer about your own sale or purchase.

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