The Annual Value (AV) of your property is IRAS's estimate of the gross yearly rent your home could fetch if it were rented out, before furniture and maintenance. It is not your home's sale price, and it has nothing to do with what you actually paid. AV does two jobs that hit your wallet: it sets your property tax bill, and it acts as a means-test for government schemes like the GST Voucher and the Assurance Package. A four-room HDB flat might have an AV around $12,000 to $15,000; a mass-market condo unit often sits in the $25,000 to $40,000 range. The higher the AV, the more property tax you pay and the more likely you are to fall outside a scheme's cut-off. This guide shows exactly what AV is, how to find yours, and the 2026 numbers that flow from it.
Annual Value is the estimated gross annual rent your property could command on the open market, as assessed by IRAS. The estimate excludes the rent attributable to furniture, furnishings and maintenance or service charges. So a fully furnished unit and a bare one of the same size in the same block are given the same AV, because AV measures the value of the bricks and the location, not the sofa.
IRAS works out the AV by looking at actual rents on comparable properties nearby. For a four-room HDB flat in Tampines, IRAS looks at what similar four-room Tampines flats are renting for, takes a market view, and sets one annual figure. The same logic applies to condos and landed homes against their own comparables. The factors that feed the assessment include location, age of the building, floor area, recent improvements, and special features such as a private pool, since all of those move what a tenant would pay.
IRAS monitors the rental market and reviews annual values every year, so your AV is not fixed for life. It drifts up when market rents climb and down when they soften. The sharp rise many owners saw on their 2024 bills was the tail of the 2022 to 2023 rent surge, when most owner-occupied homes had their AV raised by more than 20%. When rents cool, the next review pulls the figure back. This is why two identical flats can carry slightly different AVs after a revision year if one block has seen fresher tenancy signings than the other.
AV applies whether or not you rent the place out. If you live in your own flat, IRAS still assigns it an AV as if it were rented, because property tax is a tax on the property, not on rental income you earn. Vacant land and properties under construction are valued differently, usually as a percentage of the estimated freehold or market value of the land.
Two numbers people confuse with AV: the purchase price and the valuation used for a loan. AV is none of those. A $1.5m condo does not have a $1.5m AV; its AV is the yearly rent it would fetch, perhaps $30,000 to $36,000. For how lenders value a home for financing, that is a separate exercise covered in our HDB resale valuation guide.
AV is also not the rent you actually collect as a landlord. If you let your condo for $3,200 a month, your real rent is $38,400, but your AV could be assessed at $34,000 if comparable units rent a touch lower or if part of your contract covers furniture. The rent you bank is taxed under income tax; the AV is what drives property tax. They are two different bills on the same home.
| Figure | What it measures | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Value (AV) | Estimated gross yearly market rent, bare unit | Property tax and scheme means-testing |
| Purchase price | What you paid to buy | Your cost base, stamp duty |
| Bank valuation | Lender's view of resale market value | Loan amount and loan-to-value limit |
| Actual rent received | Rent your tenant pays you | Income tax on rental income |
AV is the multiplier in your property tax bill. IRAS takes your AV, applies a progressive rate, and that is your annual tax. Because the rate bands are progressive, a higher AV does not just cost more, it costs proportionally more once you cross into the upper bands.
AV is also a wealth proxy the government uses to ration benefits. Several schemes look at the AV of your home as at 31 December of the prior year to decide if you are in the lower- or middle-income group. Cross the AV line and the payout shrinks or disappears, even if your income is unchanged.
If you own the property, checking your own AV is free. Log in to the IRAS myTax Portal with your Singpass and select View Property Summary under the Property menu; your current AV is shown alongside your tax bill. The free owner view shows the AV for the current year and up to the past four years, which is handy if you want to track how your AV has moved.
If you want the AV of a property you do not own, for example one you are thinking of buying or renting, IRAS runs a separate Check Annual Value of Property e-service. It charges $2.50 (including GST) for each successful enquiry, and returns the AV plus the registered owner's name. This is the legitimate, paid route; there is no need to ask an agent to guess.
Knowing the AV before you buy is useful because it tells you the property tax you will owe and whether owning that home pushes you past a scheme's AV cut-off. If you are weighing a purchase, run the numbers alongside our stamp duty calculator and mortgage calculator so the recurring property tax sits in your full cost picture.
There is no single correct AV for a flat type, because the figure tracks local rents and those vary by town, age and floor. As a rough sense of scale, smaller and older HDB flats sit below the $12,000 tax-free line, four-room flats commonly land in the low to mid teens of thousands, and executive flats run a little higher. Mass-market condo units typically fall in the $25,000 to $40,000 band, and landed homes go well beyond that. IRAS publishes median annual values by property type each financial year on data.gov.sg if you want the official benchmark for a given year.
Treat these as orientation, not a quote. Two four-room flats in the same town can carry different AVs if one sits on a high floor in a newer block where recent tenancies signed higher. The only number that bills you is the AV on your own myTax Portal record, so check that rather than assuming the median applies to your unit. If you are sizing up a private purchase, our cost of owning a condo guide sets property tax next to the other recurring bills.
Median AVs also matter because the scheme cut-offs are set with them in mind. The GST Voucher line of $31,000 sits above the median AV of almost every HDB flat, which is why the overwhelming majority of HDB households clear the AV test and the means-testing then comes down to income. It is private and larger homes that are most likely to breach the AV ceiling.
Property tax in Singapore is progressive and depends on whether you live in the property. Owner-occupied homes get a lower rate schedule; properties you rent out or leave vacant are taxed at the higher non-owner-occupied rates. The rate is applied band by band, the same way income tax brackets work, so only the slice of AV inside each band is taxed at that band's rate.
The owner-occupier schedule below took effect on 1 January 2025 and still applies for the 2026 tax year. The first $12,000 of AV is tax-free, which is why all one- and two-room HDB flats, and many smaller older flats, pay no property tax at all.
These apply if you live in the home. You must occupy the property and have applied for (or been granted) the owner-occupier concession for it to qualify.
These apply if you rent the property out or leave it vacant. The bands are steeper and start taxing from the first dollar of AV, with no tax-free band. They have been in force since 1 January 2024.
Take a four-room HDB flat with an AV of $14,000, owner-occupied. The first $12,000 is taxed at 0%, and the remaining $2,000 at 4%, giving $80 before any rebate. A condo unit with an AV of $30,000, owner-occupied, pays $0 on the first $12,000 plus 4% on the next $18,000, which is $720 for the year.
Now rent that same $30,000-AV condo out. Under the non-owner-occupier schedule it is taxed at 12% on the full $30,000, which is $3,600. Same property, same AV, but more than four times the tax because you do not live in it. This is the gap that catches accidental landlords who forget that moving out flips their rate band.
The arithmetic above is the gross tax. Your actual 2026 bill is lower because of a one-off rebate, covered next. Property tax is one of several recurring costs of owning here, so it helps to see it next to your loan and upkeep rather than as a January surprise.
| Property | Assumed AV | Gross property tax |
|---|---|---|
| 1- or 2-room HDB | Below $12,000 | $0 |
| 4-room HDB | $14,000 | $80 |
| Mass-market condo | $30,000 | $720 |
| Larger condo | $50,000 | $1,720 |
| Landed / prime | $85,000 | $5,620 |
For 2026, the government is giving a one-off property tax rebate to all owner-occupied residential properties. Owner-occupied HDB flats get a 15% rebate on their property tax. Owner-occupied private residential properties get a 10% rebate, capped at $500.
You do not apply for it. IRAS offsets the rebate automatically against the property tax payable on your 2026 bill, which was issued from December 2025 with payment due by 31 January 2026.
After the rebate, owner-occupiers in three-room and larger HDB flats see an average property tax increase of about $2 to $3 a month versus the prior year, driven by higher annual values as market rents rose. One- and two-room HDB owner-occupiers continue to pay no property tax. For private owner-occupiers, about half see an increase of less than $6 a month after the rebate, with larger rises falling on higher-value homes.
Property tax is one of the recurring numbers worth folding into a yearly plan rather than treating as a surprise in January. If you budget monthly, parking roughly one-twelfth of the bill aside is easy to set up in a personal budget.
Beyond tax, AV is the gate for several support schemes. The GST Voucher (Cash) scheme uses the AV of your home as at 31 December of the prior year. To qualify, that AV must be $31,000 or less. If your AV is $21,000 or below you sit in the higher payout tier; between $21,001 and $31,000 you get a smaller cash amount. You also need assessable income within the income cap and must not own more than one property.
Because the cut-off is a hard line, a property whose AV creeps from $30,800 to $31,200 after a market-rent revision can knock a household out of the GST Voucher entirely. This is why people who are near the line check their AV each year when the December valuation notices go out.
The same AV figure feeds the Assurance Package, U-Save and Service & Conservancy Charges rebates, and various cost-of-living top-ups for HDB households. If you want the full picture of cash and voucher schemes you may qualify for, see our GST Voucher guide and the CDC Vouchers guide.
One point that trips people up: for scheme means-testing the relevant AV is the home you live in, identified by your NRIC-registered address, not a property you happen to own elsewhere. If you rent, or you live with your parents, the AV that counts toward your GST Voucher assessment is the AV of that residence. Owning no property at all does not exempt you from the AV test; it just means the AV of where you stay is what gets read.
| AV of home (as at 31 Dec prior year) | Outcome |
|---|---|
| $21,000 or less | Higher cash payout tier |
| $21,001 to $31,000 | Lower cash payout tier |
| Above $31,000 | Not eligible on AV grounds |
AV is reviewed periodically and revised when market rents shift materially. When IRAS changes your AV it sends a Valuation Notice. If you believe the new AV does not reflect the market rent of comparable properties, you can object within 30 days of the date on that notice.
An objection needs evidence, not just an opinion. Useful support includes recent signed tenancy agreements for your unit or near-identical units in the same development, and, for higher-value or unusual properties, a professional valuation. Vague claims that rents have fallen will not move the figure; comparable transactions will.
Keep paying the tax shown while an objection is pending. If IRAS revises the AV down, any overpaid tax is refunded or credited. Letting the bill lapse to make a point only adds late-payment penalties on top.
If IRAS reviews your objection and either rejects it or only partly allows it, you are not at a dead end. You can take the matter to the Valuation Review Board within 30 days of the date on IRAS's decision. The Board is an independent tribunal that hears AV disputes, so this is the formal next step rather than another round of letters with IRAS. Most owners never need it, because a well-evidenced objection backed by genuine comparable tenancies is usually settled at the IRAS stage.
It is IRAS's estimate of the gross yearly rent your property could fetch on the open market, excluding furniture, furnishings and maintenance charges. IRAS uses comparable rents nearby to set it. AV is not your purchase price or your loan valuation.
If you own it, log in to the IRAS myTax Portal with Singpass and use View Property Summary to see your AV for free, including the current year and the past four years. To check a property you do not own, use the Check Annual Value of Property e-service, which charges $2.50 (including GST) per successful enquiry and returns the AV plus the owner's name for the current year and up to the past five years.
IRAS applies a progressive rate to your AV, band by band. For owner-occupied homes in 2026, the first $12,000 is tax-free, then rates run from 4% up to 32% on higher AV slices. Properties you rent out or leave vacant are taxed at non-owner-occupier rates of 12% to 36%.
A four-room HDB flat often has an AV around $12,000 to $15,000, and one- and two-room flats sit below the $12,000 tax-free line. A mass-market condo unit commonly falls in the $25,000 to $40,000 range. These are indicative; check your own AV on myTax Portal for the exact figure.
Yes. The GST Voucher (Cash) uses your home's AV as at 31 December of the prior year. You qualify only if it is $31,000 or less, with the higher payout tier for AV of $21,000 or below. Crossing the cut-off can disqualify you even if your income has not changed.
Yes. Owner-occupied HDB flats get a one-off 15% rebate on 2026 property tax, and owner-occupied private homes get 10% capped at $500. IRAS offsets it automatically against your bill, which was issued from December 2025 and is due by 31 January 2026.
You can file an objection with IRAS within 30 days of the date on your Valuation Notice. Back it with evidence such as recent tenancy agreements for comparable units or a professional valuation. Keep paying the tax shown while the objection is being reviewed; any overpayment is refunded.
IRAS monitors the rental market and reviews annual values every year, so your AV can move up or down with market rents. It is not fixed at the value set when you bought. The steep rises on 2024 bills reflected the 2022 to 2023 rent surge, when most owner-occupied homes had their AV raised by more than 20%.
You do not pay property tax as a tenant, since that bill falls on the owner. But for scheme means-testing the AV that counts is the home you live in, read off your NRIC-registered address. So if you rent, or you live with your parents, the AV of that residence is what gets used for your GST Voucher assessment, even though you own nothing.
If your home's AV rises above $31,000 you lose eligibility for the GST Voucher (Cash) on AV grounds, even if your income is unchanged. The cut-off is a hard line. If you think the new AV overstates market rent, you can object to IRAS within 30 days of the Valuation Notice; a successful objection that brings the AV back below the line can restore eligibility.
If IRAS disallows or only partly allows your objection, you can appeal to the Valuation Review Board within 30 days of IRAS's decision. The Board is an independent tribunal for AV disputes. Most owners settle at the IRAS stage when their objection is backed by genuine comparable tenancies, so the appeal route is rarely needed.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.