03-07-2025
Singapore private property owners who sell homes within 4 years must pay seller's stamp duty
SINGAPORE: Private property owners who sell their homes within four years will incur a seller's stamp duty, the Ministry of National Development (MND) announced on Thursday (Jul 3).
The seller's stamp duty (SSD) holding period will increase to four years, up from three years.
The SSD rates will also increase by 4 percentage points for each tier of the holding period, the ministry changes will take effect for all residential properties purchased on and after Jul 4, 12am.
The revised SSD will not affect HDB owners due to the Minimum Occupation Period for HDB flats, MND said.
The SSD is payable by those who sell a residential property within a specified period after purchase.
In 2017, this period was reduced from four to three years, and the SSD rates were also reduced by four percentage points for each tier of the holding period, said MND.
In recent years, the number of private residential property transactions with short holding periods has increased sharply. In particular, there has been a significant increase in the sub-sale of units that have not been completed, it added.
Therefore, the government will revert to the pre-2017 SSD holding period of four years, and raise the SSD rates by four percentage points for each tier of the holding period, it said.
