The current rule
IRAS announced that for residential property bought on or after 4 July 2025, the SSD holding period is four years and each tier rose by four percentage points:
- Sold within 1 year: 16%
- Within 2 years: 12%
- Within 3 years: 8%
- Within 4 years: 4%
- After 4 years: no SSD
Property bought before that date follows the earlier three-year schedule, so always check the purchase date first.
Example
A flat bought in August 2025 is sold 18 months later for S$1,000,000. It falls in the “within 2 years” tier, so SSD is 12% × S$1,000,000 = S$120,000, paid by the seller.
How examiners disguise it
- Giving both the OTP date and completion date and asking which counts.
- Adding BSD or ABSD figures as distractors, which the buyer pays, not the seller.
- Holding periods that land exactly on a boundary.