HDB Sales Proceeds 2022: Step-by-Step Guide To Find Out How Much Money You Get When You Sell Your Flat

There comes a point in time when everyone might have to sell their Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat.

You could be a single pringle who has found a partner to move in with.

Or you could be a family looking to move to a new place that is nearer to your child’s dream school.

Not to mention the people who are looking to sell their HDB flat and upgrade to a condominium.

Whatever your reason, proper financial planning is key.

If you would like to sell your HDB flat and plan your finances with your proceeds be it in Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies or cash.

We got you.

Here’s a guide to figuring out how much money you’ll get when you sell your HDB flat!

TL;DR: HDB Sales Proceeds Guide — How Much Money Will You REALLY Get When You Sell Your HDB Flat in 2022?

When Can I Sell My Resale Flat

Before we begin, it is important that you know when you can sell your HDB resale flat.

Basically, you will need to have fulfilled your Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), which is calculated from the date you collect the keys to your flat.

Note that the MOP excludes any period where you do not occupy the flat which is inclusive of the time when you are renting out the whole flat or you have infringed on the flat lease.

Your MOP duration also hinges on how you purchased the flat, the flat type as well as the date of flat application:

Or if you are not too keen on doing the math, you can simply head on over to My HDBPage with your Singpass and check if you have met the MOP to sell your flat, under:
My Flat > Purchased Flat > Flat Details and Minimum Occupation Period (MOP).

How to Check Valuation of HDB

If you are looking to sell your flat, you’ll probably want to know how much the HDB flat that you’re planning to sell is worth.

The only way you can estimate how much you can sell your flat for would be to use the prices of past resale transactions.

To figure this amount out, check out our guide to HDB Valuation and use this resale flat prices database from HDB:

Take Note of the Negative Cash Sale

First, your existing home loan’s outstanding balance needs to be paid back. This could be your HDB home loan or bank loan. This is the first refund that needs to be made and takes priority over everything else.

Secondly, you will need to refund all the Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies you took out from your CPF savings inclusive of the principal and the accrued interest.

This can include expenses like the downpayment, lawyer’s fees, stamp duties and HDB grants.

The amount you have to refund generally consists of the principal amount you took out from your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) as well as the accrued interest that compounds annually and is calculated from the date you withdrew money from your CPF OA.

In other words, you will have to refund the interest on the principal amount based on the current CPF OA interest rate of 2.5% p.a.!

Think of it as a reverse interest; the longer the money is out of the account, the more the accrued interest you’ll have to refund into your CPF OA when you sell your property.

This may result in a negative cash sale, a scenario where you might have to refund cash to your CPF OA when selling your house.

There are two scenarios.

Scenario number one is if you managed to sell your property at either its market value or above it.

In the event that there is a negative cash sale and the amount that you have to refund to your CPF savings is more than your sale proceeds in cash, you are not required to top up the shortfall in cash.

Note: According to HDB: ‘any option money (such as an option fee or option exercise fee) that you received from the buyer in cash when you sold your property is considered part of the selling price. As such, this amount also needs to be refunded to your CPF account before the transaction can be completed.’

Scenario number two is when you sell your property at below its market value and the amount that you have to refund to your CPF OA is more than your sale proceeds in cash.

This means that you will be required to refund all the money you took out of your CPF account plus accrued interest.

This means that you will have to top up cash to make up for the shortfall.

But on balance, you can write to CPF and appeal to write off this ‘debt’ if you are strapped for cash. Approval however is up to CPF’s discretion and is judged on a case-by-case basis.

To avoid this situation, you can make either a partial voluntary housing refund or a full voluntary housing refund to reduce the amount of accrued interest you have to refund.

This will reduce the amount of CPF savings that need to be refunded when you sell your property.

After all compound interest works both ways.

HDB Resale Calculator: Sale Proceeds Calculator

To figure out how much you can get from selling your HDB flat, I will be using a real-life example of a 4-Room BTO flat from the recently MOPed Ghim Moh Edge November 2012 Build to Order (BTO) project and the HDB Sales Proceeds Calculator.

The lucky couple who bought this BTO flat plan to sell their flat after MOP. For that I obtained the resale transaction information from a sale of a flat there in June 2022:

Source: HDB | Example of a Ghim Moh Edge 4-room flat sale and price in June 2022

Also, here are the other assumptions for this illustration:

#1 HDB Outstanding Loan or Bank Outstanding Loan

When you sell your flat, the first thing that needs to be repaid is your outstanding home loan.

Based on the sales proceeds of $703,200, and the outstanding home loan amount of $$324,672, we will have $378,528 left.

#2 CPF Monies Used: HDB Grant Payback Etc. + CPF Accrued Interest

Next up you would have to return all the CPF monies that were utilised for the purchase of the flat.

This includes the downpayment, CPF grants, stamp duty and lawyer fees.

And since you took out this money from your CPF, you would have to return it with accrued interest that has been compounding at a rate of 2.5% p.a. over five years:

Alternatively, you could just log into your CPF account with your Singpass and check under “My Statement” to find out the amount of CPF monies to be refunded to your CPF OA.

But for this example, we will only have $303,366 [($378,528 – $75,162 – $2 (cash deposit from buyer)] left in cash proceeds.

#3 Agent Commission Fees if Any

So if you engaged an agent to sell your house, you would have to pay anywhere from 1% – 2% in agent commission fees.

This will set you back anywhere from $7,032 – $14,064 based on the sale price of $703,200.

As a result, you will be left with $296,334 – $289,302 in cash.

But if you are willing to take up the challenge you can sell your HDB flat without an agent and save on these fees.

#4 Outstanding HDB Payments (Case by Case Basis)

In addition, when you sell your flat, the proceeds will be used to settle any outstanding payments, such as outstanding upgrading costs, and upgrading levy due to HDB.

This is $0 for this example but this might not be the case for everyone.

If you have bought subsidised housing, you will need to pay a resale levy when you buy a second subsidised flat. Subsidised housing is defined by HDB as:

• A flat bought from HDB
• A resale flat bought with a CPF housing grant
• A Design Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flat bought from a property developer
• An Executive Condominium (EC) unit bought from a property developer
• Other forms of housing subsidy (e.g. enjoyed benefits under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS), privatisation of HUDC estate etc.).

For this example, the couple will have to pay a resale levy of $40,000.

FAQs About Selling Your HDB Flat

What About Singaporeans and Permanent Residents Above the Age of 55 Selling Their Property?

When you turn 55 in Singapore, a few things happen to your CPF.

First, a CPF Retirement Account (RA) is created for you to help provide for your retirement.

The monies in the CPF OA and SA will be channelled into your CPF RA for enrollment into the CPF Lifelong Income For The Elderly (LIFE) annuity scheme.

For the uninitiated, CPF LIFE is a life annuity scheme for all Singaporeans and Singapore Permanent Residents (PR) that provides a monthly payout from retirement age for as long as you live.

Basically, CPF LIFE provides you with your monthly retirement income from your CPF.

As such, once you turn 55 and sold your flat the following rules apply to you.

If you tapped into your CPF for your downpayment or to service your housing loan, you will need to refund the principal amount you took from your CPF account, plus accrued interest. This interest amount is equal to what you would have earned, had you kept the money in your account.

This amount includes option monies too.

The amount refunded will be used to top up your Retirement Account, up to your Full Retirement Sum ($192,000 in 2022). Any balance refund beyond the Full Retirement Sum will be paid to you in cash.

You can log in to the CPF website using your Singpass and check under “My Statement” to find out exactly how much you will have to refund when you sell your property.

All home sellers will have to refund the CPF principal amount withdrawn for housing, plus the accrued interest.

However, if you are aged 55 and older and have chosen the option to set aside only the Basic Retirement Sum ($96,000 in 2022) to withdraw your RA savings in cash; you will be required to pledge your property.

Once you have sold your pledged property, the proceeds will be used to refund the pledged amount, in addition to the principal withdrawn and accrued interest.

Do I Have To Pay Seller’s Stamp Duty if I Sell My HDB Flat?

The short answer is no as according to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS), you would only have to pay Seller’s Stamp Duty (SSD) if you plan to sell a private property within three years of buying it:

However, you do not need to pay SSD if you held the property for more than three years.

Got Any Questions About Selling Your HDB Flat?

Head over to Seedly and start a discussion in our Property group. Our savvy community members will be happy to help!