Singapore's private residential property price index rose 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026, the sixth straight quarter of gains, according to URA's final data published on 24 April 2026. Prices are still going up, but slower: full-year 2025 growth was 3.4%, the weakest since 2020, and transaction volume in Q1 2026 collapsed to 4,041 deals, down 39.7% from the previous quarter. So the headline is a market that is grinding higher on thin volume, with the mass-market Outside Central Region (OCR) leading at +2.2% while landed homes slipped 0.4%. If you are trying to read the URA price index to time a purchase, the number that matters more than the index level is what a unit actually costs you all-in: a typical OCR new launch transacts around $2,150 per square foot, before you add roughly 3% to 5% in buyer's stamp duty and the 25% downpayment a bank loan requires. This guide breaks down the latest index, the real cost to buy, and how to use the data instead of being spooked by it.
URA publishes its Private Residential Property Price Index (PPI) every quarter. It is a quality-adjusted index pinned to a base of 100 in Q1 2009, so the index level tells you how much prices have moved since then rather than a dollar figure. The headline you see in the news is the quarter-on-quarter percentage change in that index.
For Q1 2026, the overall index rose 0.9% q-o-q in the final reading dated 24 April 2026. That is a notable upward revision from the 0.3% flash estimate URA put out on 1 April, because the flash is based on partial transaction data from the first 10 weeks of the quarter and gets revised once full data lands. The lesson: treat flash estimates as a rough signal, not gospel.
Under the headline, the market split in two. The non-landed index (condos and apartments, which is what most buyers are shopping for) rose 1.3% to 210.2, while landed homes corrected 0.4% after a sharp 3.4% jump the quarter before. Landed is a thin, lumpy market, so its index swings around far more than the condo index, and a single big bungalow deal can move it. For the typical buyer, the non-landed number is the one to watch.
URA splits the island into three market segments, and the gap between them is the most useful thing in the whole release. The Core Central Region (CCR) is the prime central districts (9, 10, 11), the downtown core and Sentosa. The Rest of Central Region (RCR) is the city fringe, places like Queenstown, Toa Payoh and the Greater Southern Waterfront. The Outside Central Region (OCR) is everywhere else, the mass-market suburbs where most Singaporeans actually buy: Tampines, Woodlands, Jurong, Punggol.
In Q1 2026 the segments moved in clearly different directions. Non-landed OCR led at +2.2% q-o-q, RCR rose 0.8%, and prime CCR lagged at +0.6%. This is the same pattern that has held for a couple of years now: the suburbs, propped up by owner-occupier and HDB-upgrader demand, keep outrunning the prime districts, where the 60% Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty on foreigners has gutted the traditional luxury-buyer pool.
What this means in plain dollars: median new launch prices in Q1 2026 sat around $2,154 psf in the OCR, roughly $2,695 psf in the RCR, and about $3,208 psf in the CCR. The OCR figure is the one most upgraders will feel, because a 1,000 sq ft suburban three-bedder at $2,150 psf is a $2.15 million sticker price before stamp duty and renovation.
| Region | Q1 2026 price change (q-o-q) | Median new launch price (approx) |
|---|---|---|
| Outside Central Region (OCR) | +2.2% | ~$2,154 psf |
| Rest of Central Region (RCR) | +0.8% | ~$2,695 psf |
| Core Central Region (CCR) | +0.6% | ~$3,208 psf |
The strangest line in the Q1 2026 data is the volume. Total private home transactions fell to 4,041, down 39.7% from 6,699 in Q4 2025, with new sales (excluding executive condos) down 60% and resales down nearly 42%. Prices up, deals down: that combination usually means a market where buyers and sellers disagree on price, so fewer transactions happen, but the few that do still clear at firm levels.
Most of the drop is a supply story, not a demand collapse. Developers front-loaded a wave of launches into the second half of 2025, so Q1 2026 had little fresh inventory to sell. With fewer launches, fewer new-sale deals get done, which mechanically drags total volume down even if appetite is unchanged. Unsold inventory (excluding ECs) actually rose 8.1% q-o-q to 16,219 units, and the vacancy rate for completed homes ticked up to 6.2%.
For a buyer, low volume is not automatically a buying signal or a warning. It mainly tells you the market is in a quiet, choppy phase where individual project pricing matters more than the index. Don't read a single soft quarter as a turn; URA prices have now risen for six straight quarters.
The price index gets all the headlines, but URA publishes a rental index in the same release, and for anyone buying to let it matters more than the price line. After two quarters of small declines, rents turned back up in Q1 2026: the overall private residential rental index rose 0.3% q-o-q, with non-landed rents up 0.4% and landed rents up 0.1%, reversing the 3.0% slide landed rents took the previous quarter. A flat-to-rising rental market matters because your gross yield is rent divided by price, and prices are still climbing, so a stagnant rent quietly erodes the return on a buy-to-let.
Vacancy is the warning light most buyers ignore. The islandwide vacancy rate for completed private homes ticked up to 6.2% in Q1 2026 from 6.0%, and the spread by region is the useful part: the prime Core Central Region sat at 8.2% vacant, the city fringe at 6.3%, and the mass-market suburbs at just 5.2%. Higher vacancy in the CCR is the same story the price data tells, a prime market with thinner demand under the 60% foreigner ABSD, while suburban units fill up faster because that is where local renters actually want to live.
If you are sizing up a rental investment, pair the rental index with the vacancy rate for the exact region you are buying in. A high headline yield on a CCR unit means little if it sits empty for two months between tenants. Run the real numbers, rent minus maintenance, property tax and the income tax you owe on rent, through our rent-vs-buy calculator before you assume the tenant covers your mortgage.
| Measure | Q1 2026 figure | Prior quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Overall rental index (q-o-q) | +0.3% | -0.5% |
| Non-landed rents (q-o-q) | +0.4% | -0.1% |
| Landed rents (q-o-q) | +0.1% | -3.0% |
| Vacancy rate (islandwide) | 6.2% | 6.0% |
| Vacancy: CCR / RCR / OCR | 8.2% / 6.3% / 5.2% | — |
Future supply sets the floor under prices, and the 2026 number is unusually tight. URA's Q1 2026 release shows only about 6,282 new private homes scheduled to complete in 2026, well under half the 10-year annual average of 10,837 units. Fewer completions in the near term keeps a lid on the resale supply that competes with new launches, which is part of why prices have held up even as sales volume sagged.
Look further out and the picture loosens. Roughly 55,800 private homes, including executive condos, are due to complete over the next few years across the full pipeline, and unsold inventory with planning approval rose to about 17,032 units in Q1 2026. The government also keeps topping up land supply: the first-half 2026 Government Land Sales programme set aside around 4,600 private housing units on confirmed-list sites. That steady drip of land is a deliberate policy lever to stop prices running away, so a buyer betting on a runaway shortage is betting against the supply tap.
For your own decision, the takeaway is timing within the cycle, not panic. Thin 2026 completions support today's prices; the heavier pipeline landing from 2027 onward could give resale buyers more choice and more room to negotiate. If you are not in a rush, knowing roughly when the supply wave arrives near you is worth more than reacting to one quarter's index print.
The URA index tells you the trend; your bank account cares about the cash. Buying private property in Singapore has three big upfront cash hurdles: the downpayment, the buyer's stamp duty, and (for second and subsequent homes) the additional buyer's stamp duty. Get these wrong and you can be locked out at the signing table even if you can afford the monthly mortgage.
On a bank loan for your first home, the Loan-to-Value (LTV) limit is 75%, so you fund 25% of the price yourself. Of that, at least 5% of the price must be in hard cash; the other 20% can come from your CPF Ordinary Account or cash. So on a $2 million condo, you need $100,000 minimum in cash plus $400,000 more from CPF or cash, a $500,000 downpayment before you have paid a cent of stamp duty. Stretch that loan over 25 to 30 years and check the monthly figure with our mortgage calculator before you fall for a showflat.
Your borrowing ceiling is also capped by the Total Debt Servicing Ratio (TDSR): your total monthly debt repayments, including the new mortgage, generally cannot exceed 55% of your gross monthly income. Run your number through our TDSR and mortgage tool so you know your real budget, not the agent's optimistic one.
Stamp duty and the downpayment are one-off. The bills that recur are the ones a showflat never mentions. Condo maintenance fees run roughly $300 to $700 a month for a typical unit, paid to the management corporation for the pool, gym, security and upkeep, and they rise over time. You also owe annual property tax to IRAS, charged on the property's annual value (its estimated yearly rent), on a progressive scale: owner-occupier rates are lower, while a property you rent out is taxed at the higher non-owner-occupier rates that start at 12% of annual value. For 2026, the government granted a one-off property tax rebate of 10% (capped at $500) for owner-occupied private homes. The exact bands are in our annual value guide and the property tax glossary entry.
Budget for these before you stretch to the maximum loan. A buyer who clears the TDSR test on the mortgage alone, then gets hit with maintenance fees, property tax, insurance and the first big repair, is the one who ends up selling early into the four-year SSD window.
These LTV limits are set by MAS and apply to bank loans. The HDB concessionary loan LTV was also cut to 75% from 20 August 2024, so the 80% HDB loan no longer exists.
Every residential buyer pays Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD) on the higher of the price or market value. The rate is tiered, the same way income tax brackets work, topping out at 6% on the portion above $3 million. On a $2 million condo, BSD works out to $69,600. You can work this out exactly with our stamp duty calculator, and the rate bands are explained in the BSD glossary entry.
If this is not your first residential property, Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty (ABSD) stacks on top, and it is brutal. The rates have held since 27 April 2023. A Singapore Citizen pays 0% on a first home but 20% on a second and 30% on a third or more. Permanent Residents pay 5% on the first, then 30% and 35%. Foreigners pay a flat 60% on any residential purchase, which is why prime-district demand has thinned out. Entities pay 65%. There is more detail in the ABSD glossary entry.
Selling matters too. Seller's Stamp Duty (SSD) was tightened from 4 July 2025: the holding period is now four years (up from three), and the rates rose by four percentage points across the board. Sell within the first year and you pay 16% of the price; it steps down to 12%, 8% and 4% over years two, three and four, then zero after that. For most owner-occupiers this is irrelevant because you hold for years, but it makes short-term flipping a money-loser by design. See the SSD glossary entry for the full schedule.
BSD is charged on each slice of the price, not the whole amount at one rate.
ABSD is paid on top of BSD and is calculated on the higher of price or market value. Rates effective 27 April 2023.
You do not need to wait for a news headline. URA puts the full statistics out on a fixed schedule, with a flash estimate on the first working day of each quarter and the final figures on the fourth Friday of January, April, July and October. The free Property Market Information portal on URA's site lets you pull actual transacted prices, project by project, unit by unit, going back five years, plus the rental contracts filed for that project. The paid REALIS subscription goes deeper for agents and analysts, but for most buyers the free public search is enough: you can see what units in a specific project sold for, the size, the floor, and the date.
When you look at a project, ignore the average psf and look at the spread. A new launch quoting a $2,200 psf average can hide $1,900 psf ground-floor units and $2,600 psf high-floor stacks. The median for the exact unit type and floor band you want is the number that matters, not the project-wide average a brochure leans on.
Compare the resale price of nearby completed condos against the new-launch price for the same area. In Q1 2026 the median resale non-landed price was around $1,763 psf islandwide, well below new-launch medians, because new launches carry a developer premium for being new and on a fresh 99-year lease. Whether that premium is worth it depends on your holding period and whether you are buying to live in or to rent out.
There is no clean answer, but the data points to a few honest realities. Prices are still rising, just slowly, and the suburbs are outpacing the prime districts. That flips the old assumption that CCR is the safe store of value; under the 60% foreigner ABSD, prime resale liquidity is weaker than the mass market right now. If you are an owner-occupier buying where you want to live, the index level matters far less than whether the monthly repayment fits your budget with room to spare.
If you are buying as an investment, run the yield, not the hope of price gains. Gross rental yields on Singapore condos sit roughly in the 3% to 3.8% range, and after maintenance fees, property tax and income tax on rent, the net is lower. Stack that against a Singapore Savings Bond or fixed deposit paying you with zero leverage risk and ask whether the property's extra return justifies the concentration and illiquidity. Our rent-vs-buy calculator helps you see the breakeven.
The most expensive mistakes are not about timing the index. They are buying beyond your TDSR, underestimating the cash you need at signing, or assuming you can flip within a year (the new four-year SSD makes that a guaranteed loss). Get the cash math right first, then worry about whether the index is up 0.9% or 0.3%. If property is part of a bigger plan, read our property pillar guide and check how the purchase fits your overall net worth before committing.
URA's final data, published on 24 April 2026, showed the overall private residential price index rose 0.9% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026. That was up from a 0.3% flash estimate and marked the sixth consecutive quarter of price growth. Non-landed homes rose 1.3% while landed homes fell 0.4%.
URA splits the island into three segments. CCR (Core Central Region) is the prime central districts plus Sentosa. RCR (Rest of Central Region) is the city fringe. OCR (Outside Central Region) is the mass-market suburbs. In Q1 2026, non-landed OCR led at +2.2%, RCR rose 0.8%, and CCR rose 0.6%.
Median new launch prices in Q1 2026 were around $2,154 psf in the OCR, about $2,695 psf in the RCR, and roughly $3,208 psf in the CCR. The median resale non-landed price was about $1,763 psf islandwide, lower because resale units do not carry a new-launch developer premium.
On your first bank home loan, the maximum loan is 75% of the price, so you pay a 25% downpayment, of which at least 5% of the price must be in cash and the rest can come from CPF. For a $2 million condo that is $100,000 minimum cash plus $400,000 from CPF or cash, before stamp duty.
A first-time Singapore Citizen buyer pays only Buyer's Stamp Duty of $69,600 on a $2 million property. A second property adds 20% ABSD ($400,000) for citizens, while foreigners pay a flat 60% ABSD on any residential purchase. ABSD is charged on top of BSD.
No. The flash estimate on 1 April 2026 showed prices up 0.3%, but the final reading on 24 April was revised to +0.9%, almost three times higher. Flash estimates use only partial transaction data, so always wait for the final figure before drawing conclusions.
Prices are still rising but slowly, with full-year 2025 growth at 3.4%, the slowest since 2020, and transaction volume down nearly 40% in Q1 2026. For owner-occupiers, whether the monthly repayment fits your budget matters more than the index. For investors, compare net rental yield (after costs, gross yields run about 3% to 3.8%) against lower-risk options before committing.
Rents edged up. URA's Q1 2026 release showed the overall private residential rental index rose 0.3% quarter-on-quarter after two soft quarters, with non-landed rents up 0.4% and landed rents up 0.1%. The islandwide vacancy rate rose slightly to 6.2%, and prime CCR vacancy was highest at 8.2% while suburban OCR was lowest at 5.2%.
About 6,282 new private residential units are scheduled to complete in 2026, less than half the 10-year annual average of 10,837 units. The full pipeline, including executive condos, is roughly 55,800 units over the coming years, so near-term supply is tight while a heavier wave lands from 2027 onward.
Beyond the mortgage you pay monthly maintenance fees to the management corporation, usually around $300 to $700, plus annual property tax to IRAS charged on the unit's annual value. Owner-occupiers get lower rates; a rented-out home is taxed at non-owner-occupier rates starting at 12% of annual value. Insurance and repairs add to the total.
Use URA's free Property Market Information portal, which lists transacted prices and rental contracts project by project and unit by unit for the past five years. Flash estimates come out on the first working day of each quarter and final data on the fourth Friday of January, April, July and October. The paid REALIS service offers more depth for agents and analysts.
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.