Singapore housing market 2026: prices, costs, FSBO

Singapore has no single "median home price," because the market splits cleanly in two. About 80% of households live in public HDB flats, where the median resale price was around S$628,000 in full-year 2025 (roughly S$639 per square foot). Private condominiums are a different world: the median resale price was about S$1,875,000 (close to S$2,124 per square foot), and landed homes sat near S$4,650,000. By the first quarter of 2026, the national HDB median was about S$498,000 for a 4-room flat and S$610,000 for a 5-room.

The direction of travel is up but clearly slowing. The official URA private residential price index rose +0.88% quarter-on-quarter and +3.41% year-on-year in Q1 2026, the smallest quarterly gain in six quarters. The freshest monthly signals are softer still: condo resale prices slipped -0.4% month-on-month in April 2026, and HDB resale edged only +0.3% in May 2026. The HDB Resale Price Index actually dipped -0.1% quarter-on-quarter in Q1 2026, its first quarterly fall in seven years, even as a record 412 flats sold for S$1 million or more.

Our own read matches that "firm but cooling" picture. On 23 June 2026 we read 10 live 3-bedroom condo listings on SRX, spanning suburban (OCR), city-fringe (RCR), and prime (CCR/Sentosa) areas. The median asking price was S$3,050,000 (about S$2,156 per square foot), with a suburban entry point near S$1,200,000 and a prime outlier above S$7,700,000. That sample skews to newer and central projects, so it runs above the islandwide condo median, and asking prices typically sit about 4% above final transacted prices. Rolling the 2025 medians forward by the Q1 trend, a realistic June 2026 nowcast is roughly S$1,891,000 for a typical condo and S$630,000 for a typical HDB flat.

Singapore is unusually cheap on the seller side. There is no general transfer or registration tax on a sale, and the purchase stamp duties (BSD and ABSD) are paid by the buyer, not you. Your unavoidable cost is the conveyancing lawyer, generally S$2,500 to S$5,000 for a condo (less for an HDB flat), plus a small valuation fee of about S$300 to S$500. Capital gains on a genuine home sale are normally not taxed at all.

The one tax a seller must check is Seller's Stamp Duty (SSD), which applies only to private property sold inside the holding period. For homes bought on or after 4 July 2025 the rates are 16% in year one, then 12%, 8%, 4%, and 0% after four years (homes bought earlier follow the older 12/8/4/0% over three years). HDB flats are never subject to SSD. For an owner-occupier who has lived in the home for years, SSD is usually zero, which is why our cost-to-sell figures assume you are past the four-year mark.

The biggest line by far is the agent commission, typically 1% to 2% of the price, and the seller customarily pays their own agent. The commission is not regulated by law and is fully negotiable. Where a co-broke applies, the seller's agent shares part of that fee with the buyer's agent, but a buyer who brings their own agent normally pays that agent separately. On a S$1,500,000 sale the seller's commission is S$15,000 to S$30,000, dwarfing the lawyer and valuation costs combined.

Selling your own home with no agent is perfectly legal. Only paid estate-agency work requires registration with the Council for Estate Agencies, and owners are free to sell their own HDB flat or private property directly. What you cannot skip is the conveyancing lawyer, who runs the title search, lodges the caveat, redeems any mortgage, handles the CPF refund, and registers the transfer with the Singapore Land Authority. Treat the lawyer as non-negotiable and the agent as optional.

The real friction for a private seller is distribution. The dominant private-property portals accept listings only from licensed agents, so an owner-direct seller leans on consumer marketplaces, the owner-direct sections of certain portals, or dedicated owner-listing services that syndicate for a small success-based fee. For HDB flats the path is smoother: the government's HDB Flat Portal lets owners register an Intent to Sell, list, and transact directly, with no agent in the loop.

Pricing yourself is easier in Singapore than almost anywhere, because the public data is excellent. URA publishes transacted private-home caveats and a quarterly index, and HDB publishes recent resale prices by block and flat type, so any buyer can verify a fair asking price independently. A well-evidenced price grounded in recent like-for-like sales builds more trust than an agent's pitch, and on a S$1.5 million home the avoided commission of S$15,000 to S$30,000 is money that stays in your pocket.