Insights

The Resale HDB Purchase Planner, Explained

From the option fee to the keys, a resale flat is paid in a specific order — and an HDB loan and a bank loan don't pay it the same way. This planner maps every dollar and the date it's due.

By TRIBE Editorial · 28 June 2026 · 4 min read

A resale flat isn't paid in one lump — it's paid in a sequence, on specific dates, from specific pockets. And the sequence differs depending on whether you take an HDB loan or a bank loan. The Resale HDB Purchase Planner takes your price and your funds and lays the whole thing out: the option fee, the exercise fee, the Buyer's Stamp Duty, the downpayment, and the order every dollar leaves your account — so you know not just how much but when.

75%

LTV cap on the loan

bank or HDB, on price or valuation

$5,000

Option + exercise fees, capped

option itself capped at $1,000

~3 mths

OTP to completion

the full payment timeline

What it asks, and what it returns

You enter the purchase price and the HDB valuation, your loan type (HDB or bank), your loan-eligible amount (your HLE or bank in-principle approval), and your cash, CPF OA and any housing grants. The planner returns the Buyer's Stamp Duty, the loan you'll actually use, the equity (downpayment) required, the cash and CPF drawn at each step, and any shortfall — as a four-step waterfall from option to keys.

Two numbers are computed off different bases, which is where DIY sums go wrong: the loan and CPF caps are set on the lower of price and valuation, while BSD is charged on the higher of the two. The gap between price and valuation — the Cash-Over-Valuation, or COV — has to be paid in cash, on top of everything else. The planner separates these automatically.

The order of payments

Step one is the option fee — capped at $1,000 for a resale flat — paid in cash the day the seller grants the Option to Purchase. Step two is exercising the option within 21 days; the option and exercise fees together are capped at $5,000, also cash. Step three is Buyer's Stamp Duty (plus legal fees), due around the time HDB accepts the resale application a few weeks in — and for an HDB resale, CPF OA can pay the BSD. Step four is completion, roughly three months from the start, when the balance downpayment is settled and the loan disburses.

The HDB-loan wrinkle most people miss

If you take an HDB loan, the rules are stricter in one direction and looser in another. Looser: there's no minimum-cash requirement — your 25% downpayment can come entirely from CPF OA and grants, where a bank loan demands at least 5% of valuation in hard cash. Stricter: HDB requires you to wipe your CPF OA down to a $20,000 retention (per owner) before it will lend, so excess OA must go into the flat and reduce the loan below the 75% cap. The planner models this retention directly, so the loan figure it shows is the one HDB will actually extend — not the headline 75%.

How to read it

Open the Resale HDB Purchase Planner, enter your price, valuation, funds and loan type, and read the timeline top to bottom. The thing to check first is the cash line at each step — the option, exercise and any COV are cash you need early, long before completion, and they're the payments first-timers most often under-plan. The shortfall flag tells you immediately if your cash and CPF don't cover the path.

This maps the cost and the timing; it doesn't check what you can borrow — for that, start with the Affordability Assessment.

Map your flat purchase at tribesg.com/planner/resale-hdb.

Sources: TRIBE Resale HDB Purchase Planner; fees, the 75% LTV cap, the $20,000 OA retention and BSD per HDB and IRAS rules, as at June 2026. Informational only; not financial advice.

Silas Tan is a District Director at Huttons Asia and co-founder of TRIBE. This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial or investment advice. CEA Registration R000303I.