Introduction
The fact that you are researching the term “ Part Purchase Property”. There is a high chance that you are exploring ways to purchase your 2nd property.
While there are a myriad of ways on how to avoid ABSD on your 2nd property purchase, Part purchase is one of the most frequently used and effective methods.
How is Part Purchase of a property related to decoupling ?
To set proper context, Part Purchase can be seen as one of the methods to decouple a property in Singapore.
To decouple a property, i.e the removing or the separating of a party’s name from a jointly owned property, can be achieved by the following means.
- Transferring of property ownership as gift (no monetary consideration)
- Part purchase / Part sale (internal buying and selling between joint owners)
What is Part Purchase Property ?
Part purchase, as the name suggests is the purchase of a part / percentage of share in a property, instead of purchasing the property as a whole.
It entails one party selling a percentage of shareholding in a property to another party. The execution of the transaction is no different from the usual buy and sale transaction for a property between owner and seller.
Different situation in which part purchase is utilised.
- Decoupling – when one owner buys over the other owner’s share
- Divesting of share in a co-investment scheme – an investor selling his share to another investor for a property structured under a tenancy in common manner of holding.
- Addition of name into a property – for succession planning purpose
For the purpose of this article we will focus the next part of discussion on how part purchase under the context of decoupling.
Quick intro – Decoupling Expertise
Before you commit the next 5 mins of your time reading this article. It helps to know who’s behind the pen.
Decoupling Expertise, is a team of specialised realtors, providing tailored decoupling consulting service. Our goal is to provide a simple, assuring turn key solution for Singaporean property owners to purchase their second property.
Our suite of solutions include
- Decoupling lawyer recommendation
- Decoupling timeline advice and management
- Decoupling cost and budget calculation
- 2nd Property research and selection
- 2nd Property price negotiation and purchase
Drop us a note on whatsapp to answer any question you have got with regards to decoupling.
How can Part Purchase help you for your 2nd property purchase ?
The root issue resulting in ABSD is due to the fact that both you and your spouse name are locked into the title deed of the property.
In order to address that, a part purchase transaction can be initiated with one party buying the share of the other party.
This is executed via a sale and purchase transaction, conveyed by two independent law firms, independently representing buyer and seller.
As soon as the contractual sale and purchase agreement is being signed by both parties, the “leaving” party that has sold shares is now deemed to be free from any property ownership and is eligible to purchase the 2nd investment property.
Who should be the “staying/buying” party and the “leaving/selling” party ?
A commonly asked question is who should be the sole owner of the current property and who should be the party purchasing the new investment property.
There is no hard and fast answer to this.
The variables to consider includes the following
- The valuation of your current property
- The intended purchase price of your 2nd property
- The earning power of spouse 1
- The earning power of spouse 2
- Age of spouse 1 and spouse 2 (affects loan tenure)
Now consider the following examples.
Scenario #1
Current property is a 5 bedroom private condo valued at 2.5 mil dollars.
And the intend is to purchase another 2 bedroom private condo at a price of 1.6mil dollars.
In this case, the higher earning spouse should be the one taking over the ownership of the existing property, as he/she is able to shoulder a bigger loan.
Scenario #2
Current property is a 3 bedroom private condo valued at 1.4 mil dollars.
And the intend is to purchase another new launch 3 bedroom private condo valued at 2.0 mil dollars.
In this case, the spouse with lower income power should be taking up full ownership of the existing property and the higher earning spouse use her higher income to leverage and purchase a higher quantum investment property.
Different restriction on Part Purchase for different property type
Unfortunately not every property type is permitted to execute a part purchase / sale transaction.
Property type not eligible for Part Purchase / Sale
- HDB / BTO – HDB decoupling for investment purposes has been restricted since 2016
- EC – EC that have yet to achieve its 5 year minimum occupation period
Property type eligible for Part Purchase / Sale
- All private condo
- All private landed property
Cost involved in Part Purchase and sale of Property in Singapore
Similar to a typical property buy and sell transaction, there are transactional costs involved.
Cost includes
- Buyer stamp duty
- Seller stamp duty
- Additional buyer stamp duty
- Decoupling legal fee
- Valuation fee
- Early loan redemption penalty
For details on how to minimise the cost of part purchase / sale refer to article inline.
Buyer stamp duty
Buyer stamp duty will be levied on the valuation of the shared to be transferred.
For a 1.0 million dollar property, held in a 50-50 share ownership.
Buyer stamp duty will be levied on the $500k, (50% x 1 mil) in accordance to the following BSD rate table
| Purchase price/ Market Value | Rate in percentage for residential properties |
| First S$180,000 | 1% |
| Next S$180,000 | 2% |
| Next S$640,000 | 3% |
| Next S$500,000 | 4% |
| Next S$1,500,000 | 5% |
| Amount exceeding S$3,000,000 | 6% |
Seller Stamp Duty
Similarly, if property is not held for more than 4 years, seller stamp duty will be levied on the 50% share value to be part purchase.
Seller stamp duty rates as follow
*Article has been updated with the latest Seller Stamp Duty Rates as of 4 July 2025
| Holding Period Before Sale | SSD Rate (from 4 July 2025) |
| Up to 1 year | 16% |
| More than 1 year, up to 2 years | 12% |
| More than 2 years, up to 3 years | 8% |
| More than 3 years, up to 4 years | 4% |
| More than 4 years | No SSD payable |
Additional Buyer Stamp Duty
Additional buyer stamp duty will be applicable if you are a PR or foreigner, referencing the first property purchase tax rate of 5% and 60% respectively.
| Latest ABSD rates | Rates |
| ABSD for 2nd property, Singapore Citizen | 20% |
| ABSD for 3rd and subsequent properties, Singapore Citizen | 30% |
| ABSD for PR, 1st property | 5% |
| ABSD for PR, 2nd property | 30% |
| ABSD for PR, 3rd and subsequent properties | 35% |
| ABSD for foreigners, any and all properties | 60% |
Decoupling Lawyer fee
Decoupling requires 2 sets of lawyer to ensure independent representation of the buying and selling party.
Decoupling lawyer fee typically range from $5,000 to $6,000.
Refer to our article on best decoupling lawyer in SG to learn more.
Valuation fee
A valuation fee of $600 to $1000 will be required to assess your current property value
Early Loan Redemption Penalty
If your loan is still within its locked in period, may need to incur a 0.4% Early loan redemption penalty on your outstanding loan.
For property owner with existing mortgage and is looking to refinance, it is advisable to first complete your part purchase and sale transaction first before refinancing and getting locked into your new loan package.
Check with your bank if the amount can be waive if you refinance with them, when necessary.
What will happen to the existing mortgage during the part purchase process ?
The existing mortgage will be restructured. The current mortgage will have to be fully redeemed and replaced with a enlarge mortgage comprising of “staying” party share of the existing mortgage plus the loan used to finance the purchase of the “leaving” party share.
Assuming outstanding mortgage on current property is 1.0 mil.
And a new loan amt of 500k is required to finance the leaving party’s share.
The new restructured loan quantum will amount to 1.5 mil and the staying party must be able to afford this.
What will happen to the CPF of the leaving party during the part purchase process ?
Given the party that sold his or her share via the part purchase process. His name will no longer be under the ownership of the property.
Hence the CPF previously utilised, together with the accrued interest will have to be refunded back into the leaving party’s OA account.
This can then be used for the 2nd property purchase.
Calculating the cost of part purchase property
With the cost elements all set out, feel free to calculate the cost of part purchase property and funds required to execute part purchase of property using the decoupling calculator
Example illustrating Part Purchase of a property in Singapore
Context
John and Sally jointly owned a private condo valued at $1.0 mil.
It is held in a 50-50 joint tenancy.
Their current outstanding loan in the property amounts to $500,000.
John have utilised CPF, including accrued interest amounting to $100,000.
Sally will be the “staying” party buying out John’s share.
John will be the “leaving” party selling shares to Sally.
Calculation – Sally’s Part Purchase Transaction
Sally purchasing John’s share valued at $500,000 (50% of $1.0 mil)
She will fund it with 5% cash and 20% cash or CPF, this amounts to $125,000
The remaining 75% of John’s share will be finance by the new loan to be taken, it amounts to $375,000 (75% of $500,000).
New restructured loan
Sally will have to take up a new loan comprising of 1) her share of the current loan $250,000 (50% of $500,000) plus 2) new loan to finance the purchase of John’s share $375,000.
The new restructured loan quantum amounts to $625,000.
Calculation – John’s Part Sale Transaction
John will receive a total proceed of $500,000 for the part sale of his share to Sally.
Of this amount, John will have to return the bank his share of the current outstanding mortgage, deducting $250,000 (50% of $500,000) from the proceed.
Next, John will have to refund the CPF utilised with accrued interest for the current property. Further deducting $100,000 from the sales proceed.
The final cash proceed John will receive amounts to $150,000, after making the 2 deductions above.
He will have $150,000 in cash and $100,000 CPF, adding on any other cash, CPF savings on hand.
This will form John’s final cash and CPF funds available for the purchase of the family’s 2nd investment property.
Calculation – Cost of part purchase / sale transaction
Buyer stamp duty amounts to $9,600
Decoupling legal fee amounts to $6,000
Valuation fee amounts to $600
Total cost of part purchase / sale amounts to $16,200
Timeline for part purchase of property
The sequence of event will be as follow
Time – 7 days
- Engagement of decoupling lawyer
- Submission of necessary documents to law firm
- Appointment at law firm to sign sale and purchase document
- Leaving party us free to make second property purchase without ABSD at this point, but note proceeds from part sale of share has not been paid out yet
Time – 8th weeks
- Existing loan to be fully redeemed
- New restructured loan to be in place
Time – 12th week
- Part purchase / sale transaction to be completed
- Cash sales proceed to be disbursed as cheque to leaving party
Time – 14th week
- CPF proceeds from part sale to be refunded back into leaving party’s OA account
Part Purchase vs Gifting of Share
One consideration that many property owner considering part purchase would be “why don’t I just transfer my share as a gift to my spouse instead of selling it”.
In summary there several disadvantage that comes with this, check out our separate article on transfer of property ownership to find out more.
In essence
- You can only transfer property as a gift if your property is fully paid up
- And after transfer your property is liable to debtor claw back under bankruptcy act
- And you will still incur buyer stamp duty doing so
Legality of part purchase property in Singapore (Updated with Latest August 2025 News Release)
This article has been updated with the latest news release regarding the legality of decoupling property in Singapore.
In the most recent news release on 02 Aug 2025, pertaining a couple decoupling a property with a 99-1 share split. The court has ruled that it is illegal if the sole purpose of decoupling is to avoid tax.
Similar to the previous cases on the ABSD 99-1 Loophole cases. IRAS has deem schemes intentionally contrived to avoid taxes illegal.
To ensure that decoupling of any share to remain above board, one must ensure that there is a true commercial substance behind the transaction and not solely a scheme contrived to attain a tax advantage.
For more clarification, with regards to this drop us a text to clarify your doubt and we will also refer you to our partnering lawyer for further clarification
Legal Disclaimer : Please do not take this as legal advice, refer to a qualified legal counsel specialising in decoupling for a formal review of your plans based on your specific circumstances.
Who should be the party buying over shares during part purchase of property ?
As you proceed further in making plans towards part purchase and sale of your property, one common consideration is to decide, between husband and wife, who should be the party buying over shares and who should be the party heading out to purchase the 2nd investment property.
We discuss at at length, 5 different scenarios and 8 different factors to consider when deciding who should be the party buying over shares when decoupling. Check out article link inline.
