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New Sale vs Resale

Same budget, two paths — who wins after 4 years?

A new launch draws its loan slowly and skips resale's day-one costs; a resale starts appreciating — and costing — immediately. This runs both sides of the ledger.

Scenario

New launch (BUC)

Resale condo

Enter a price for both sides to run the comparison.

How the comparison works

Each side runs its own ledger over your horizon. Growth compounds annually on your per-side assumption. Interest is where the structure differs: the resale loan amortises in full from day one (computed exactly), while the BUC loan draws by the standard progressive payment stages — TOP around month 39, CSC around month 51 — so interest accrues only on the drawn balance. Costs are side-specific: rent-while-waiting for BUC; maintenance, property tax, renovation, and furniture for resale. Optional buying expenses (BSD, ABSD, legal) hit both sides identically.

Net profit is growth minus interest, costs, and any buying expenses; return is measured against cash actually deployed. The honest caveat: the verdict is only as good as the growth assumptions you feed it. Ground the resale number in real project history via the Resale Project Scorecard, and see the BUC cash-flow reality in the New Sale planner.

Frequently asked questions

Is a new launch or a resale condo the better buy?
It depends on three levers this calculator makes explicit: the growth assumption for each (new launches are priced ahead of the market today but historically appreciate into TOP; resale prices are established), the structural interest saving of a progressively drawn BUC loan against a resale loan that runs in full from day one, and the day-one costs only resale carries — renovation, furniture, maintenance, and property tax. There is no universal answer; there is your answer on your assumptions.
Why is the bank interest so much lower for a new launch?
A building-under-construction loan disburses by construction stage, so for the first years you pay interest on a fraction of the loan. On a $750,000 loan over four years, a resale buyer pays roughly $36,000 of interest while a BUC buyer on the standard progressive timeline pays roughly a third of that. The flip side: the BUC instalment ramps up and peaks after completion, and you may be paying rent somewhere else while you wait.
What costs does resale carry that a new launch does not?
From day one: maintenance fees, property tax, usually renovation, and furniture. A BUC defers all of these until TOP — but adds rent while waiting if you have no home meanwhile. Both sides pay the same BSD/ABSD at the same price.
What growth rates should I assume?
That assumption decides the comparison — which is why it's an input, not a hidden default. Ground the resale side in actual project-level history (every condo's appreciation is scored in our Resale Project Scorecard), and stress the new-launch side both ways rather than assuming launch-day pricing always grows into profit.

Indicative projections on user assumptions — not a forecast and not financial advice. Stage timing follows the standard progressive scheme; actual schedules vary by development.