Buying Commercial Property in Singapore: Prices, Taxes, Loans and the Checks That Matter
What offices, shops and shophouses sold for in the past year, the stamp duty, GST and ABSD rules that catch buyers out, how loans and CPF work, how the market has moved, and what to check before you commit.
Anyone can buy commercial property in Singapore: individuals and companies, local or foreign, need no approval for offices, shops or a shophouse in commercial use. In the 12 months from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026, strata office units sold for a median $1,369,000 ($2,200 psf) and shophouses with their land for $6,000,000, on URA caveats. Buyer's stamp duty is charged at non-residential rates (top rate 5%), GST at 9% applies if the seller is GST-registered, and there is no ABSD unless part of the property is residential. CPF's Housing Scheme covers residential property only, and TDSR still caps an individual's loan.
Commercial property in Singapore runs on different rules from a home. Anyone can buy an office or a shop, there is no ABSD on a wholly commercial unit, and CPF's Housing Scheme covers homes, not shops; but GST may apply, the stamp duty scale is different, and a shophouse can be taxed partly as a home.
This guide sets out those rules as IRAS, MAS, CPF, SLA and URA publish them (read on 25 and 26 September 2026), what offices, shops and shophouses actually sold for on URA's caveat records, how prices and rents have moved on URA's own indices, and the checks to make before you sign. It links to the individual buildings in PropKaki's commercial directory wherever a number comes from one.
Can you buy commercial property in Singapore as an individual or a company?
Yes. Singapore's approval rules for foreign buyers cover homes, not offices or shops: SLA lists 'Industrial and commercial properties' and a 'Shophouse (for commercial use)' among the property a foreign person can buy without approval. The exceptions are a shophouse in non-commercial use and commercial-and-residential property. A company can buy too; what changes is how its loan is assessed and, on any residential part, ABSD at the entity rate of 65%.
The Residential Property Act restricts what foreign persons may buy, and SLA's list shows where the line falls (SLA, updated 20 August 2025):
- No approval needed: "Shophouse (for commercial use); Industrial and commercial properties;" and hotels.
- Approval needed: "Shophouse (for non-commercial use);" and "Commercial & Residential properties".
So an office or a shop unit is open to any buyer, and the question that matters is not who you are but what the property is. (Industrial property can carry its own conditions from the land's lessor, so check the lease before you buy a factory.) For the full foreign-buyer picture, see our guide to whether foreigners can buy commercial property.
Buying through a company changes two things: the loan rules (see loans below) and the stamp duty on any residential part. IRAS charges "Entities ... buying any residential property" ABSD of 65% (IRAS), and a shophouse or unit can be partly residential for stamp duty, as the biggest-mistake section below explains.
The label that decides a commercial purchase is on the property, not on the buyer.
How much does commercial property cost in Singapore?
In the 12 months from Aug 2025 to Jul 2026, URA caveats put the median strata office unit at $1,369,000 ($2,200 psf, 646 sq ft), the median strata shop unit at $1,189,500 ($3,060 psf, 398 sq ft), and the median shophouse sold with its land at $6,000,000.
| Type | Caveats | Median price | Median $psf | Median sq ft | Freehold | In the Central Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Strata office units | 292 | $1,369,000 | $2,200 | 646 | 23% | 90% |
| Strata shop units | 298 | $1,189,500 | $3,060 | 398 | 46% | 90% |
| Shophouses sold with their land | 63 | $6,000,000 | $4,936 (land) | 1,488 | 73% | 86% |
Source: URA caveats in PropKaki's commercial transactions data (30,738 caveats since 1995), Aug 2025 to Jul 2026; 669 caveats in the window, of which 16 fall outside these three groups. August 2026 is still being lodged, so it is left out, and the last months may still grow a little.
Three things stand out:
- Nine in ten trades are in the Central Region: 90% of strata offices and 90% of strata shops.
- Shops cost more per sq ft than offices ($3,060 against $2,200), and they are smaller: a median 398 sq ft against 646.
- Almost everything is second-hand: 5% of office units and 3% of shop units were bought new from a developer.
A shophouse's $4,936 is per sq ft of land, not floor space, so it can't be compared with a strata unit's price per sq ft.
Which office buildings cost the most per sq ft? Among buildings where at least ten office-classified strata units changed hands from Aug 2023 to Jul 2026, leaving out any where most of the sales were one deal on one date:
| Building | Planning area | Caveats | Median $psf | Median price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SBF Center | Downtown Core | 23 | $3,399 | $2,673,150 |
| Suntec Tower Three | Downtown Core | 11 | $3,398 | $15,292,800 |
| One Sophia | Rochor | 33 | $3,265 | $4,511,000 |
| Suntec Tower One | Downtown Core | 14 | $3,228 | $10,909,550 |
| Plus | Downtown Core | 17 | $3,224 | $2,809,756 |
| The Central | Singapore River | 60 | $2,862 | $2,094,000 |
| 111 Somerset | Orchard | 15 | $2,762 | $2,300,000 |
| PS100 | Outram | 12 | $2,711 | $1,274,000 |
Grade A towers held by a single owner seldom trade unit by unit, so they are not in this list. Each building links to its PropKaki page, with its full transaction history.
To price a particular building, look it up in PropKaki's commercial directory (9,536 buildings and addresses); to see what is on the market now, use the commercial and industrial listings finder.
A median is where the market traded, not what your unit is worth; the building's own record is the better guide.
What taxes do you pay on commercial property, and is there ABSD or SSD?
Buyer's stamp duty at the non-residential rates, which top out at 5%: $39,360 on the median strata office price of $1,369,000. GST of 9% on top if the seller is GST-registered ($123,210 at that price), which a GST-registered buyer may be able to claim back. No ABSD and no seller's stamp duty on a wholly commercial shop or office. Property tax is 10% of the annual value every year.
Buyer's stamp duty (BSD). Since 15 February 2023, "the top marginal rate for non-residential properties is 5%" (IRAS), charged on "the purchase price or market value of the property, whichever is higher":
| Purchase price or market value | Non-residential BSD rate |
|---|---|
| First $180,000 | 1% |
| Next $180,000 | 2% |
| Next $640,000 | 3% |
| Next $500,000 | 4% |
| Above $1,500,000 | 5% |
On the median strata office price of $1,369,000, that is $1,800 + $3,600 + $19,200 + 4% of the next $369,000 = $39,360. Where GST applies, confirm with your conveyancing lawyer which price is stamped.
GST. "The sale and lease of non-residential properties are subject to GST", at "9%" (IRAS, rate). "Only GST-registered businesses can charge and claim GST" (IRAS), so it applies only when the seller is GST-registered: $123,210 on the median office price if it does. A buyer who is GST-registered "can claim GST incurred on the purchase of non-residential properties, subject to the conditions for claiming input tax" (IRAS); anyone else simply pays it. Ask before you agree a price whether it includes GST.
ABSD. Additional buyer's stamp duty is charged by "the count of residential properties owned by the buyer" on residential property (IRAS), so a unit whose permitted use is wholly non-residential attracts none. Mixed property is different: see the biggest-mistake section below.
Seller's stamp duty (SSD). IRAS charges SSD on residential property and on "all industrial properties and industrial lands that are acquired on or after 12 Jan 2013 and disposed of within the holding period" (15% within a year, 10% within two, 5% within three; IRAS). A wholly commercial shop or office is neither, so reselling one early carries no SSD; an industrial unit does.
Property tax. "Non-residential properties such as commercial and industrial buildings and land are taxed at 10% of the Annual Value. Owner-occupier tax rates do not apply to non-residential properties even if you have bought the properties for your own use/occupation" (IRAS). IRAS's example: an annual value of $54,000 means $5,400 a year. It is payable "whether the property is rented out, owner-occupied or vacant".
On a commercial purchase, the tax to ask about first is GST; for a mixed property, it is ABSD.
Can you use CPF to buy commercial property?
Not under CPF's Housing Scheme, which lets you use Ordinary Account savings to buy an HDB flat or to buy or build private residential property in Singapore. An office, shop or shophouse in commercial use is not residential property, so plan to pay for it in cash and with a bank loan.
CPF's own words: "you can use your CPF Ordinary Account (OA) savings to purchase residential properties in Singapore under the CPF Housing Scheme", to "Buy Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats" and to "Buy or build private residential properties in Singapore" (CPF FAQ); and "Your OA savings can be used to buy a HDB flat, or buy or build private and residential properties in Singapore" (CPF). Neither page mentions commercial property, and the scheme is framed around residential property throughout.
Plan the whole purchase, the down payment, the stamp duty and any GST, in cash and bank borrowing.
CPF is for the roof over your head, not the shop under it.
How do loans for commercial property work in Singapore?
If you borrow as an individual, MAS's total debt servicing ratio applies just as it does for a home: your monthly debt repayments, including the new loan, may not exceed 55% of your monthly income (banks can go above it only exceptionally). A loan to a company is not under TDSR, unless the company was set up by an individual solely to buy the property.
MAS is explicit that commercial property is covered: TDSR "applies to loans for both residential and non-residential properties (e.g. industrial and commercial properties), and covers properties in and outside Singapore". "Any individual applying for a loan to purchase a property or a loan secured by a property is subject to TDSR rules" (MAS), and "the total debt servicing ratio (TDSR) threshold is set at a maximum of 55% of the borrower's monthly income" (MAS). Banks "may grant property loans to borrowers whose TDSR exceeds the threshold on an exceptional basis, subject to enhanced credit evaluation" (MAS).
Buying through a company is treated differently: TDSR "does not apply to loans for companies, as they are subject to a different set of credit assessment criteria. However, if the borrower is a sole proprietor or an individual setting up a company solely to purchase property, FIs are required to apply the TDSR rules to the individual." (MAS)
PropKaki does not track banks' commercial loan rates or loan limits, so compare offers from the banks directly.
Putting the unit in a company's name doesn't get you round TDSR if the company exists only to buy it.
What counts as commercial property: office, retail or shophouse?
In URA's planning terms, commercial land is 'used or intended to be used mainly for commercial development', for offices, shops, restaurants, banks and the like. URA's sale records split commercial property into offices, retail (shop units) and shophouses, sold either as strata units or as whole buildings with their land.
Zoning. URA's Master Plan 2025 Written Statement defines the Commercial zone as "areas used or intended to be used mainly for commercial development", for developments such as "1. Offices 2. Mixed Uses (e.g. Office/ Shopping/Cinema/Hotel/ Flat)" and seven more, from banks to cinemas (URA). Its "Commercial & Residential" zone is "mainly for mixed commercial and residential development", and the White zone mixes commercial, hotel, residential and other uses. The zone matters for tax, as the biggest-mistake section explains.
Types you can buy. In URA's caveats, commercial property is recorded as:
- Office: usually a strata unit in an office building (292 sales in the past year), occasionally a whole building. Not every "office" is in an office tower: 22% of those sales were in buildings named as a shopping centre, plaza, mall or complex.
- Retail: a strata shop unit, most often in a mall (298 sales). The malls where shop units changed hands most often from Aug 2023 to Jul 2026:
| Building | Planning area | Strata shop caveats | Median $psf |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far East Plaza | Orchard | 31 | $5,766 |
| Lucky Plaza | Orchard | 23 | $6,376 |
| Parklane Shopping Mall | Rochor | 23 | $1,880 |
| Sim Lim Square | Rochor | 22 | $3,290 |
| Katong Shopping Centre | Marine Parade | 20 | $3,629 |
| Orchard Towers | Orchard | 16 | $4,012 |
- Shophouse: usually the whole building with its land (63 sales).
Business parks and B1/B2 industrial buildings sit in their own zones: see our comparison of B1 and B2 industrial. PropKaki's directories list 9,536 commercial and 5,038 industrial buildings and addresses: browse commercial or industrial.
'Commercial' on a listing is a description; the zoning and the approved use are the facts.
Is commercial property a good investment in Singapore?
URA's indices show what has happened, not what will: to 2026Q2, prices of offices in the Central Region fell 18% over ten years and sit 32% below their 1996Q3 high, while office rents rose 20% and are within 1% of their 2024Q2 high. Retail rents fell 25% over the decade. Whether that suits you depends on your rent, costs and time horizon.
URA's quarterly price and rental indices for the Central Region, to 2026Q2:
| Series | 5 years | 10 years | Series high | Now vs that high |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office prices (Central Region) | -8% | -18% | 1996Q3 (from 1975) | -32% |
| Office rents (Central Region) | +24% | +20% | 2024Q2 (from 1987) | at its high (within 1%) |
| Retail prices (Central Region) | +2% | -15% | 2014Q4 (series from 2011) | -20% |
| Retail rents (Central Region) | -2% | -25% | 2011Q4 (series from 2011) | -32% |
Source: URA commercial property statistics, as loaded in PropKaki's commercial time series. Index changes, not prices. URA's retail series begin in 2011, so their "high" is the highest since then.
What the table says, and doesn't:
- Offices: rent up, price down. Over ten years, office rents rose +20% while office prices changed -18%, so each dollar of price now buys more rent than a decade ago. That is a direction, not a yield.
- Retail: both down. Retail rents are 32% below their 2011Q4 level and retail prices 20% below their 2014Q4 level, each the highest since the series began in 2011.
- Vacancy. Private office vacancy across the island was 11.2% in 2026Q2 (ten years earlier, 9.9%); private retail vacancy 7.0% (8.9%).
The popular "2% rule" (monthly rent of at least 2% of the price) is tested against Singapore homes in our property investing guide. For offices and shops, the arithmetic is simple: at the median strata office price of $2,200 psf, the rule would need rent of $44 psf a month. URA publishes median office and retail rents by street, from "rental contracts submitted to IRAS for Stamp Duty Assessment" (URA); PropKaki doesn't carry them, so check the street you are buying on there, and asking rents in the listings finder.
For the full series, including stock and supply, see PropKaki's commercial and industrial market overview. This is history, not a forecast and not advice.
Ten years of URA data: office rents up a fifth, office prices down almost a fifth.
Who can broker commercial property, and how do you check them?
Any estate agency licensed by CEA: the Estate Agents Act covers commercial and industrial property as well as homes, and there is no separate commercial licence. No public register ranks agencies by commercial deals, because the records agencies file with CEA cover residential deals only. Check any agency and its salespersons on CEA's public register.
The law. The Estate Agents Act covers work introducing or negotiating the purchase, sale or lease of any "property", which "includes any building or part of a building" (Singapore Statutes Online). CEA's conduct manual applies to "property transactions involving residential, commercial and industrial properties" (CEA).
Why there is no "top commercial agencies" list here. The records agencies must file with CEA are HDB rentals ("HDB residential flat or room rental"), private rentals ("Private residential unit or room rental transactions (including sub-lease)") and private sales ("Private residential sale/purchase transactions (excluding collective sale)"), and CEA notes that commercial and industrial transactions "cannot be uploaded" to its system (CEA). With no public record of who brokered which commercial deals, any "top five" is a claim, not a count. What the registers do show:
- the largest agencies by number of salespersons (a residential-led list) are in our guide to Singapore's property laws;
- which property management firms also hold a CEA licence under the same name is in our guide to property management companies.
Check before you sign: look up the agency and its salespersons on CEA's public register, or use PropKaki's agency finder and finder for salespersons.
For commercial property, no public register ranks agencies by the deals they close, so check the licence.
Where can you find commercial property or land for sale, and can you list one yourself?
Commercial units and shophouses are sold by their owners, through estate agencies or directly. Government land for commercial use is released through URA's land sales, which developers tender for. HDB itself lets its shops and offices by tender. Owners may sell or let their own property without a licence.
- Units and shophouses on the market. Browse current sale and rent listings in PropKaki's commercial and industrial listings finder, and check each building's sale history in the commercial directory.
- Government land. "State land is released for development through the Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme", announced "every six months" through a Confirmed List and a Reserve List, where "A site will only be launched for tender when a developer submits an application with a minimum price acceptable to the government" (URA). Our GLS guide explains how a tender works.
- HDB shops and offices. HDB lets them "through our website HDB Place2Lease or via our appointed Marketing Agents", and "requires successful bidders and tenderers to maintain their tendered rent for 2 tenancy terms, i.e. up to 6 years" (HDB). HDB shops also change hands between private owners: IRAS, for example, sets out the ABSD on "buying a HDB shop with living quarters" (IRAS).
Listing your own. The Estate Agents Act "does not apply to anything done ... by any person as the vendor or purchaser" of a property in connection with its sale or purchase (section 4(1)(f), Singapore Statutes Online), and a "vendor" includes a prospective landlord, so an owner can market a unit directly. Property portals set their own terms for owner listings, which change; check each site's current rules before you pay for a listing.
Government land goes to developers by tender; for everyone else, commercial property is bought from its owner.
What should you check before you buy a commercial property?
Five things: the approved use of the unit (it decides the stamp duty and what you may run there), the zoning, the lease left, the MCST and its managing agent, and, for an old shophouse, whether it is conserved. Works on a conserved building need URA's permission first, and URA has prosecuted owners who went ahead without it.
- Approved use. IRAS taxes a unit by its "permitted use", and tells buyers where to find it: ask "the developer or the property owner for the latest Written Permission (WP)", or use URA's "Enquiry on Approved Use of Premises" e-service, which "allows you to find out the approved use of a premise/unit in a building" (IRAS).
- Zoning. For a whole building with its land, IRAS goes by "the zoning of the land under the Master Plan". Check it with PropKaki's zoning checker.
- Lease left. Of the strata office units sold in the past year, 23% were recorded as freehold, 9% were on leases of 999 years or more and 68% on 99-year leases. The tenure is on each building's directory page.
- The MCST and its managing agent. A strata unit comes with a management corporation and, usually, a managing agent. See who manages which buildings.
- Conservation. In a case URA prosecuted in 2025 (charges), a conserved shophouse at 32 Desker Road, bought in October 2022 through a company, lost its first-storey residential front, its rear facade and its entire rear service block in works to turn it into a co-living development without URA's permission. In April 2026 the court fined the individual who carried out the works $250,000 and the owner company $150,000, and required the company "to reinstate and restore the building at its own cost"; it was "the first prosecution for unauthorised works to a conserved building since the Planning Act 1998 was amended in 2017" (URA). URA's rule: owners must "obtain conservation permission from URA and relevant technical agencies prior to any commencement of works", and offenders face "a fine of up to $500,000, or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months, or both".
The approved use decides three things at once: the stamp duty, the business you can run there and what the next buyer can do.
What is the biggest mistake commercial property buyers make?
Assuming a shophouse or a 'commercial' unit is taxed as commercial. IRAS goes by the approved use, and for a whole building with its land, by the zoning: on land zoned Commercial & Residential it treats 60% of the floor area as residential, and on White land all of it, and residential BSD, ABSD and SSD apply to that part.
IRAS's rule, for "a vacant land or an entire building with land": it "depends on the zoning of the land under the Master Plan (and not the permitted use of the property)". Its table then allocates:
- land zoned Commercial & Residential: "60% of the GFA" residential and "40% of the GFA" non-residential;
- White land: "100% of the gross floor area" residential;
- Residential with Commercial at first storey: residential except the minimum set aside for commercial use;
- only "Any other zoning e.g. Hotel, Commercial, Business Park": "100% of the GFA" non-residential.
And "ABSD rates, BSD rates and SSD rates for residential properties will apply on the residential component of the property acquired or disposed of" (IRAS).
Units go by their approved use, with two catches: a unit approved for "dual office/ residential use" counts as residential, and a "temporary permission" of "10 years or less" doesn't change the permitted use. For a mixed unit "(e.g. HDB shop with living quarter)", "ABSD is payable only on the apportioned value of the living quarters" (IRAS).
Who pays how much on that residential slice depends on the buyer: a company pays ABSD at the entity rate of 65%, and a citizen who already owns a home pays second-home rates. It also counts later: "HDB shops with living quarters or shophouses with a portion permitted for residential use will be included as a residential property count", which raises the ABSD on your next home. Property tax splits the same way, with "the commercial component" still "taxed at 10%" (IRAS).
Get the zoning and the approved use in writing before you price the deal.
A shophouse is taxed by its zoning and approved use, not by its name.
Official sources
Check IRAS, MAS, CPF, SLA, URA, HDB and CEA directly for current rules.
Methodology and sources
Where every figure comes from, and what we deliberately did not claim.
Official rules. Stamp duty, GST and property tax are from IRAS (BSD page last updated 7 August 2026; ABSD page 27 August 2026; the definition of residential property, industrial SSD, GST and property tax pages), CPF's housing pages, MAS's TDSR explainers, SLA's foreign-ownership page (20 August 2025), URA's Master Plan 2025 Written Statement, land sales page, rental statistics e-service and Desker Road releases (15 July 2025 and 22 April 2026), HDB's shops page, and the Estate Agents Act 2010 and CEA's pages, all read on 25 and 26 September 2026.
Proprietary analysis. Prices are PropKaki's analysis of URA caveats for offices, shops and shophouses (30,738 since 1995), over the 12 months Aug 2025 to Jul 2026; the newest month, still being lodged (2026-08), is left out. Medians are of every caveat of the type; tenure shares count only tenures recorded as freehold, as 999 years or more, or as 99 years. The building lists cover strata caveats from Aug 2023 to Jul 2026: office buildings with at least ten, leaving out buildings where most sales were one deal on one date (Solitaire on Cecil, Visioncrest), and the malls with the most shop caveats, each named as PropKaki's directory names it. Stamp duty and GST at the median are arithmetic on IRAS's rates. Market changes are URA's price and rental indices and vacancy rates to 2026Q2. How we work: PropKaki methodology.
What we have not claimed: what any unit is worth, what rent it will fetch, any yield or loan rate, whether now is a good time to buy, or which agency is best. This is a practical guide, not legal, tax or financial advice.
Got a question this raised? Ask PropKaki.
Take any point from this analysis and apply it to your own project, budget or decision.
PropKakiFor most buyers this year, staying well within budget beats trying to time the market.