Buying an executive condominium (EC)

Who can buy a new EC

• Household: you and your fiancé or fiancée; you, your spouse and children; you, your parents and siblings; a widowed or divorced parent with children in their care; orphaned single siblings; or 2 to 4 singles buying together.
• Citizenship: you must be a Singapore Citizen, with at least one other Citizen or Permanent Resident in the application. Singles buying together must all be Citizens.
• Age: at least 21, or at least 35 for singles buying together.
• Income: the total monthly income of everyone listed must not exceed the project’s ceiling.
• Private property: no one listed may own or have an interest in private residential property in Singapore or overseas, or have sold one in the 30 months before applying, counted from the legal completion of the sale. That includes another EC.
• Non-residential property: for EC sites launched on or after 9 May 2023, the household may own at most one, such as a shop or office.
• HDB flat: if anyone listed owns one, it must be sold within 6 months of collecting the keys to the EC.
• Housing subsidies: a second-timer, who has had one subsidy such as a flat from HDB or an EC from a developer, pays a resale levy. Anyone who has had two cannot buy a new EC.

The EC income ceiling

For EC projects whose land tender closed on or after 24 August 2026, the total monthly income of everyone listed in the application must not exceed $18,000. For earlier EC sites it is $16,000. The developer tells you which income documents to submit when you book a unit.

The CPF Housing Grant

First-timer families, couples and orphaned siblings buying a new EC can get a grant by their average gross monthly household income. It is paid into the first-timer Citizens’ CPF Ordinary Accounts and can pay part of the price or reduce the loan.

• Two or more Citizens: $30,000 for incomes up to $10,000, $20,000 up to $11,000 and $10,000 up to $12,000.
• A Citizen and a Permanent Resident: $20,000 up to $10,000 and $10,000 up to $11,000. A $10,000 Citizen Top-Up follows if the Permanent Resident becomes a Citizen or the couple has a Citizen child; apply within 6 months.
• A first-timer Citizen with a second-timer spouse or fiancé(e): $15,000 up to $10,000, $10,000 up to $11,000 and $5,000 up to $12,000.
• No grant above $12,000 a month, for singles buying together, or for second-timers.

Paying for an EC

1. At booking, the developer grants the Option to Purchase and you pay a 5% option fee in cash.
2. The 15% balance down payment, from CPF Ordinary Account savings or cash, is due by the date in the option, when you sign the sale and purchase agreement. The grant can pay part of it. Stamp duty and legal fees are due as well.
3. A bank loan pays the rest as construction progresses. MAS caps it at 75% of the price if it runs no longer than 30 years and ends by age 65, and 55% otherwise. Until the EC’s minimum occupation period ends, all home loan instalments must fit within 30% of gross monthly income (MSR) and all debts within 55% (TDSR), tested at 4% interest.
4. MND ended the deferred payment scheme for EC sites whose tender closed on or after 8 May 2026, so buyers there pay by the normal progressive payment stages.

After you buy

• Minimum occupation period (MOP): 5 years from the project’s Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP), or 10 years where the land tender closed on or after 8 May 2026. Everyone who helped you qualify must live in the unit throughout it.
• During the MOP you can rent out bedrooms without HDB’s approval, but must register the rental with HDB within 7 days. You can rent out the whole unit after the MOP.
• You can buy private residential property only after the MOP.
• After the MOP you can sell on the open market, to Citizens and Permanent Residents until 10 years from TOP (15 years for a 10-year MOP project), and to anyone after that.
• If you sell and later buy a flat from HDB or another new EC, you pay a resale levy of $55,000, or $27,500 for singles, on an EC bought with the grant or from a site tendered on or after 9 December 2013. There is none if you buy a resale flat or a private home instead.

Buying a resale EC

An EC past its MOP is sold on the open market as private property, with no income ceiling and no CPF Housing Grant, and second-timers pay no resale levy. Until it is 10 years from TOP (15 for a 10-year MOP project), the buyer must be a Citizen or Permanent Resident aged at least 21. An HDB owner must have met the flat’s MOP first; a Permanent Resident must sell the flat within 6 months.

Questions

Sources

• HDB: Eligibility for buying an EC
• HDB: CPF Housing Grant for an EC
• HDB: Process for buying an EC
• HDB: Conditions after buying an EC
• HDB: Finding an EC
• MAS: MSR and TDSR rules
• MAS: Loan tenure and loan-to-value limits
• MND: Strengthening the Executive Condominium housing scheme (2026)

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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