The new launch true cost: what the PSF headline misses

Picture this setup. A buyer walks into a showflat for a new launch in the OCR. The agent points at the brochure: "From $2,200 PSF." The buyer does the mental arithmetic on a 1,000 sqft unit and lands on $2.2 million. That number is wrong, or rather, it's the start of a much longer cash sequence. The total cost of acquiring and carrying a new launch through the first year of occupancy sits well above the headline. The Progressive Payment Scheme spreads the cash flow but doesn't shrink the commitment. Stamp duties, construction-period interest, renovation, maintenance and property tax all sit on top. None of it is hidden. It just isn't on the brochure.

This article will lay out the full cost stack so a buyer can populate it with their own numbers and see what they're actually signing up for.

PSF is a normalised number, not a price tag

A lower PSF isn't a lower-cost purchase by itself. Developers manage perception by varying unit area. A smaller unit at a higher PSF can show a lower headline total than a larger unit at a lower PSF.

Unit	Area	PSF	Total price
Unit A	750 sqft	$2,500	$1,875,000
Unit B	1,000 sqft	$2,200	$2,200,000

Unit A is 12% more expensive per square foot but 15% cheaper in total cash outlay. Neither is "cheaper" without naming the use case and the hold period. The cost model below works in dollars, not PSF. Multiply the brochure number by the saleable strata area on the floor plan and run the rest in cash.

What the PPS actually defers

The Progressive Payment Scheme spreads the purchase price across construction milestones certified by the Qualified Person and called by the developer. The standard form looks like this.

Stage	%	Cumulative
Booking fee at OTP	5%	5%
S&P / exercise	15%	20%
Foundation	10%	30%
Reinforced concrete framework	10%	40%
Brick walls	5%	45%
Roofing	5%	50%
Wiring, plastering, frames	5%	55%
Car park, drains, road	5%	60%
Notice of Vacant Possession (TOP)	25%	85%
Certificate of Statutory Completion	15%	100%

The payment schedule is governed by the standard Sale and Purchase Agreement issued under the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act. Two things to flag.

The PPS reduces cash out the door in the first months. It doesn't reduce the commitment. From the date of S&P signing, the buyer is on the hook for 100% of the price across the construction window, regardless of what happens to income, rates, or the market. Mortgage interest accrues on each progressive draw from the moment the bank disburses to the developer. Over a 36-month build, the cumulative interest is a real line item, not a rounding error.

For a $1.5 million purchase, the cash sequence runs $75,000 at OTP, another $225,000 at exercise, then $150,000 at foundation, $150,000 at framework, then five-figure tranches through the build, $375,000 at TOP, and the final $225,000 roughly 12 months after that.

What sits on top of the price

The transactional and statutory add-ons land at or near OTP exercise.

Buyer's Stamp Duty. IRAS bracket schedule. 1% on the first $180,000, 2% on the next $180,000, 3% on the next $640,000, 4% on the next $500,000, 5% on the next $1.5 million, 6% above $3 million. For $1.5 million the BSD is $44,600. For $2 million it's $69,600. For $3 million it's $134,600.

Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty. This is where buyer profile matters. Singapore Citizen first property: zero. SC second: 20%. SC third or more: 30%. PR first: 5%. PR second: 15%. PR third or more: 30%. Foreigner: 60% flat across the board. Entities and trustees: 65%. ABSD is on the higher of price or market value, payable within 14 days of S&P. A foreigner buying a $2 million unit is writing a $1.2 million ABSD cheque on top of the price. That's the line that decides whether the deal happens.

Mortgage stamp duty. Charged on the loan, capped at $500. A rounding line.

Legal fees. Conveyancing for a new sale tends to land in the low single thousands depending on firm and complexity. Loan documentation adds a separate line.

The cash-only piece. The 5% booking fee at OTP must be cash. CPF can't fund it. The next 15% to reach the 20% deposit at S&P signing can be cash or CPF. For a $1.5 million unit, that's $75,000 in liquid cash on day one before any stamp duty.

The Seller's Stamp Duty trap most articles still get wrong

If you sell within four years, you owe SSD. The rules changed on 4 July 2025 and a lot of pre-2025 commentary is still in circulation. Holding period is now four years, not three. Rates went up four percentage points per tier.

Holding period	SSD rate
Up to 1 year	16%
1 to 2 years	12%
2 to 3 years	8%
3 to 4 years	4%
Beyond 4 years	0%

For a buyer planning to flip at TOP plus a year on a 36-month build, that's a five-year window from OTP, which clears the SSD. For a buyer planning to exit earlier, the SSD is a real line. On a $2 million unit sold in year two, that's $240,000 to IRAS on the way out. The PPS doesn't help here. SSD applies on the contract price at sale, not at purchase.

Post-TOP costs the developer doesn't carry

The unit is handed over fitted to S&P spec. Everything below is on the buyer from key collection.

Renovation. New launch units arrive with developer-spec flooring, kitchen cabinetry, bathroom fixtures, and built-ins per layout. A buyer who accepts spec and adds soft furnishings, window treatments and minor built-ins limits the bill to a much lower band than a resale strip-out. A buyer who upgrades floors, kitchen, or carpentry pays more. The point isn't to quote a number. It's that the line exists and isn't zero.

Maintenance fee. Charged by the MCST from strata title issuance. Varies by share value, project facility load, and unit count. A two-bedroom unit in a typical mid-density new launch tends to sit in the mid-three to low-four figures per month. Large-facility projects with rich amenity decks and small unit counts run higher.

Property tax. Owner-occupier rates are progressive on Annual Value, set by IRAS on estimated annual rental. Zero on the first $12,000 of AV, scaling to 32% above $100,000 of AV. Non-owner-occupier rates are higher. The owner-occupier rate is granted to one property per individual or couple. For 2026 specifically, there's a one-off 15% rebate on owner-occupied PT, capped at $500, auto-offset against the bill. Useful but small in the context of the rest of the cost stack.

Construction-period mortgage interest. Each progressive draw accrues interest from the day the bank disburses. As of Q1 2026, third-party industry surveys put fixed-rate packages around 1.40% to 1.60%, with two-year packages closer to 1.32% to 1.45%, and floating packages at roughly 1M SORA plus zero, around 0.97%. 3M SORA sat near 1.07%. Treat these as snapshot, not promise. At a 75% LTV on a $1.5 million purchase and a 36-month build, cumulative construction-period interest at current rates lands in the mid five figures, depending on draw cadence. At the 3.5% the older articles assume, you'd be looking at roughly double that.

Void period. For a tenanted-use buyer, the gap between Vacant Possession and first tenancy is a carrying cost. Mortgage instalment, maintenance, property tax all run regardless. For an owner-occupier, this is mostly nil, though renovation can push actual move-in eight to sixteen weeks past key collection.

Worked example at two price points

Stated assumptions. Singapore Citizen, first property, no ABSD. 75% LTV bank loan, 30-year tenure. Owner-occupier property tax. Renovation at the lower end of the new-launch band. Maintenance at the indicative range.

Line	$1.5M unit	$2.0M unit
Purchase price	$1,500,000	$2,000,000
BSD	$44,600	$69,600
ABSD (SC first)	$0	$0
Mortgage stamp duty	$500	$500
OTP cash on day one	$75,000	$100,000
Cash-or-CPF to 20%	$300,000 total	$400,000 total
Annual mortgage at 1.5% (rough, 75% LTV, 30y P&I)	~$46,600	~$62,100
Annual mortgage if rates reset to 3.5%	~$60,500	~$80,700

The annual mortgage line is where the rate environment matters. At Q1 2026 rates the carrying cost is meaningfully lower than at the 3.5% assumption that anchors a lot of older modelling. At the end of a two-year fixed package, the rate resets to whatever's prevailing then, and the buyer wears that delta. A buyer assuming today's rate over the full hold is making a forecast. Label it as one.

Where this model breaks

The walkthrough assumes a Singapore Citizen first-property buyer using a bank loan. PR and Foreigner buyers face ABSD lines that change the upfront cash position by orders of magnitude. Entities and trustees pay 65% ABSD, which makes the whole structure a different conversation.

Self-funded buyers bypass mortgage stamp duty and construction-period interest but absorb the full cost upfront. Buyers using a Deferred Payment Scheme on selected projects face a different schedule, and the deferment is usually priced into the headline. The model also doesn't capture concierge or premium-tier service buy-ins, parking add-ons, or the cost of an external defect inspector during the Defects Liability Period.

Rate forecasting is the biggest unknown. MAS commentary suggests SORA may drift from around 1.00% at end Q1 2026 toward 1.50% in 2027. That's a guide, not a promise. The annual mortgage line at year five could look very different from the annual mortgage line at year two.

Bottom line

The headline PSF and the headline price together capture less than the full cost of acquiring and carrying a new launch through the end of the first year of occupancy. BSD, ABSD where applicable, construction-period interest, renovation, and the annual carrying triplet of mortgage, maintenance and tax collectively add a meaningful percentage to the brochure number. The PPS spreads the cash flow but the contract obliges 100% of the price across the build.

Two lines deserve fresh attention this year. SSD now bites for four years, not three, with rates four percentage points higher per tier as of 4 July 2025. Older flip math is stale. And current mortgage rates, around 1.4% to 1.6% fixed per Q1 2026 industry surveys, are well below the 3.5% baseline that older worked examples used. That changes the annual carrying cost in both directions: lower today, with reset risk later.

This article makes the lines visible so the buyer can fill them in with current numbers and check the math against their own income, debt and reserves before signing the OTP.