Can a foreigner buy property in Singapore?
Yes, with limits. A foreigner may buy a condominium unit, a flat in a private development, a commercial or industrial property and most other non-landed property without any approval. Landed homes, from a terrace house to a bungalow and including Sentosa Cove, need the approval of the Singapore Land Authority (SLA), which it gives case by case to permanent residents of at least five years with an exceptional economic contribution. A foreign buyer of any residential property pays additional buyer's stamp duty of 60 per cent on top of the buyer's stamp duty everyone pays, unless a free trade agreement treats the buyer's nationality as a citizen's.
Who counts as a foreign person
SLA's page on foreign ownership, which it calls the official source on the Residential Property Act, defines a foreign person as anyone who is not a Singapore citizen, a Singapore company, a Singapore limited liability partnership or a Singapore society. A permanent resident is therefore a foreign person under this Act, and so is a company unless it meets the Act's tests for a Singapore company.
What a foreigner may buy without approval
SLA lists what a foreign person may buy without approval under the Act: a condominium unit; a flat unit; a strata landed house within an approved condominium development; a leasehold interest in a landed home of no more than seven years, including any renewal option; a shophouse for commercial use; industrial and commercial property; and a hotel registered under the Hotels Act. For executive condominiums, HDB flats and HDB shophouses SLA points to the Housing and Development Board's own eligibility rules, which govern who may buy them.
What needs SLA's approval
A foreign person must seek approval under the Residential Property Act to buy vacant residential land, a terrace house, a semi-detached house, a bungalow or detached house, a strata landed house outside an approved condominium development such as a townhouse or cluster house, any landed home at Sentosa Cove, a shophouse for non-commercial use, association premises, a place of worship, or a workers' dormitory or serviced apartments. Applications are made online to SLA's Land Dealings Approval Unit.
SLA assesses each applicant case by case. The factors it names are that the applicant should have been a permanent resident for at least five years and must make an exceptional economic contribution to Singapore, assessed on factors such as employment income assessable for tax here. SLA says assessment generally takes about 30 working days from the day it has all the documents, longer for complex cases, and that an application for in-principle approval can be made before a particular property has been found.
The stamp duties a foreign buyer pays
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) charges every buyer of residential property buyer's stamp duty in bands, from 1 per cent on the first S$180,000 to 6 per cent on the part of the price above S$3 million, on the higher of the price and the market value. A foreigner buying any residential property also pays additional buyer's stamp duty at 60 per cent, the rate since 27 April 2023, on the same base; a permanent resident pays 5 per cent on a first home and 30 per cent on a second. IRAS's example: a foreigner buying a S$2 million unit pays S$1.2 million in additional duty. Both duties are due within 14 days of signing the contract, or 30 days if it was signed overseas. The guide on the taxes and fees a foreign home buyer pays sets the sums out in full.
IRAS's page notes that nationals of countries with which Singapore has a free trade agreement that provides for it are treated as citizens for additional buyer's stamp duty; its example is a citizen of the United States, who pays none on a first home. Whether a particular nationality qualifies is a question to settle with IRAS's page before signing.
What to check before you commit
Three things settle most of a foreign buyer's position: whether the property is on SLA's list of what may be bought without approval; the total duty, worked out on IRAS's rates for the buyer's own status, before an offer is made; and, for a landed home, SLA's approval in hand before any contract. A consultant or agent can work through all three; the rules themselves are SLA's and IRAS's, and both publish them in full. The ranked list of property consultancies says what each provider handles for buyers arriving from abroad.