Property Investment and Profitability in Singapore
Whether a Singapore property makes money depends on entry price, holding period, financing cost and the duties paid on both ends — not on the headline price move alone. These guides work through how returns are actually computed and what separates the profitable resales from the rest.
Who this is for: Investors and owner-occupiers treating a home as a financial decision.
Investment & Profit Guides
Every PropKaki guide on investment & profit, newest first.
The Condos That Lost Money in Singapore (by Real Resale Data)
We matched 267,641 private resales into buy-and-sell pairs and ranked the projects by how their resales fared. The bottom of that list is not random — it is almost entirely prime CCR and Sentosa Cove luxury, bought at rich prices near a market peak. Here are the projects, the honest reasons behind the pattern, and the one caveat that matters most: each figure is a per-project median, not a verdict on every unit inside it.
The Most Profitable Condos in Singapore — What the Resale Data Actually Shows
We ranked every private project by the median gain its owners actually banked on resale, using only projects with at least 20 matched buy-and-sell pairs. The winners are not the addresses you'd guess: the top of the percentage leaderboard is stacked with old, cheaply-bought condos and apartments, plus one executive condo that made money on all 127 of its resales. The biggest dollar wins were a different list entirely — prime landed houses — because a big percentage and a big cheque rarely came from the same home.
Do HDB Flats Make Money? Your Real Odds on an HDB Resale
"HDB always goes up" is the most repeated line in Singapore housing — so we tested it. We matched 375,562 HDB 4-room resales into buy-and-sell pairs: 73.3% sold above what the owner paid, a healthy majority but not the near-certainty most people assume, and lower than the 85.3% for private homes. This is your real base rate, and where it holds and breaks.
The Biggest Property Gains and Losses in Singapore's Resales
In a two-year window of 31,374 private resales, one Anderson Road condo sold for $45.69M more than it was bought for, and one Mount Rosie Road house sold for $24M less. We reproduce both leaderboards in full — and explain why these ultra-prime outliers tell you about the shape of the spread, not your own odds.
Freehold vs Leasehold: Which Actually Made More Money on Resale?
The myth is that freehold protects your money and leasehold bleeds it. So we tested it the only fair way: same unit size, condos and apartments only, no landed — matched freehold against leasehold pair for pair. Leasehold matched or beat freehold on the odds of resale profit in every size band; freehold led in none. But read it precisely — this is a narrow claim about resale profitability, not proof that leasehold is the better buy.
Did When You Bought Matter More Than What You Bought?
Two owners buy the same kind of condo and one profits almost every time while the other barely breaks even — the difference is often the year they bought. We matched 267,641 private resales by purchase era and found that vintage swung the odds of profit 37.2 points, the widest of any single factor. Here is the full table, why the mid-1990s buyers fared worst, and the survivor-skew trap that makes the newest buyers look safer than they are.
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Investment & Profit — Frequently Asked
What does Investment & Profit cover?
Whether a Singapore property makes money depends on entry price, holding period, financing cost and the duties paid on both ends — not on the headline price move alone. These guides work through how returns are actually computed and what separates the profitable resales from the rest.
Who are these Investment & Profit guides for?
Investors and owner-occupiers treating a home as a financial decision.
How many PropKaki guides cover Investment & Profit?
PropKaki publishes 12 guides on investment & profit, most recently updated 6 July 2026. Every guide is built on real URA, HDB and data.gov.sg data, with the working shown.
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