Singapore home prices since 2019: HDB resale up 55%, household incomes up 27%

Since 2019, HDB resale prices have risen about twice as fast as household incomes, and private home prices about one and a half times as fast. HDB's resale price index rose 55.1% from the second quarter of 2019 to the same quarter of 2025, and URA's private price index 41.4%, while the median household's monthly income from work rose 27.4% 156.

That is the short answer to what has happened to home prices over the past few years. The longer answer matters more for a household deciding what to do now. Most of that gap opened in three years, from 2019 to 2022. From 2022 to 2025, incomes still grew a little more slowly than HDB resale prices, but much closer to their pace, and faster than the median new-launch condo price 1457. This guide sets out both halves of the story from official data, and shows how to read them for your own budget.

How much have home prices risen since 2019?

Start with the official indices, because they compare like with like. HDB's resale price index tracks resale flats across towns, flat types and models, with the first quarter of 2009 set at 100 5. URA publishes a private residential price index on the same base, with the first quarter of 2009 at 100 6.

HDB's index stood at 130.8 in the second quarter of 2019 and 202.9 in the second quarter of 2025, a rise of 55.1% 5. URA's index for all private homes rose from 150.8 to 213.2 over the same quarters, or 41.4% 6. Within private housing, landed homes rose 47.0%, from 164.2 to 241.4, and non-landed private homes rose 39.6%, from 148.1 to 206.8 6.

Source: HDB 5; URA 6; Department of Statistics 1; Sightlines analysis.

The actual prices paid tell the same story. The median four-room HDB resale flat was registered at $400,000 in 2019, across 9,228 resales 4. In 2025 the median was $630,000, across 10,843 resales, a rise of 57.5% 4. Three-room flats rose 57.2%, from a median of $283,000 to $445,000, and five-room flats 52.5%, from $482,500 to $736,000 4.

The median four-room flat sold in 2025 was a little newer than the one sold in 2019: the median lease start moved from 1998 to 2001, while the median floor area stayed at 93 sqm 4. The index is computed with a stratified hedonic regression method across towns, flat types and models, and it rose slightly less than the median 5. For how much the same kind of flat costs, the index is the cleaner measure, because a change in the mix of flats sold can move a median on its own.

The most recent quarters are flatter. HDB's flash estimate puts its index at 202.4 for the third quarter of 2026, down 0.6% from 203.7 a year earlier 5. The median four-room resale registered from January to September 2026 was $629,888, across 8,647 resales, almost exactly the 2025 median 4.

What has happened to household incomes over the same years?

The income measure here is the Department of Statistics' median monthly household employment income, including employer CPF contributions, for resident employed households 1. A resident household is one whose reference person is a Singapore citizen or permanent resident, and a resident employed household has at least one employed person 8. The median is the household in the middle when all of them are ranked by income 1.

That median was $9,442 a month in 2019 and $12,027 in 2025 1. It fell to $9,208 in 2020 and then rose every year after: $9,544 in 2021, $10,120 in 2022, $10,882 in 2023 and $11,314 in 2024 1.

Some of that rise was inflation. The Department of Statistics puts the cumulative change in the median from 2020 to 2025 at 30.6% in nominal terms and 11.7% in real terms, after adjusting for prices 2. In 2025 alone, the median rose 6.3% in nominal terms and 5.4% in real terms 2.

Households living in four-room HDB flats show a similar picture. Their average monthly employment income, including employer CPF contributions, went from $9,564 in 2019 to $12,538 in 2025, up 31.1% 3. That is an average rather than a median, so it cannot be compared directly with the 27.4% rise in the median, but it points the same way 13.

When did prices pull away from incomes?

Lining the two series up year by year shows when the gap opened. Sightlines measured both as a change from 2019, using the second-quarter price index for each year beside that year's income figure 15.

Source: HDB 45; Department of Statistics 1; Sightlines analysis. Years of income are the calendar-year median four-room resale price divided by 12 times the median monthly household income.

From 2019 to 2022, HDB's index rose 25.3% while the median income rose 7.2% 15. Over those three years, the median four-room flat went from 3.53 to 4.24 years of the median household's gross income 14.

From 2022 to 2025, the two moved much closer together. The index rose 23.8% and the median income 18.8% 15. The four-room ratio crept up only from 4.24 to 4.37 years, and in 2023 it dipped 14.

Private homes followed a similar path. URA's all-residential index rose 20.0% from 2019 to 2022 and 17.9% from 2022 to 2025 6. Over the second stretch, that is slightly less than the 18.8% rise in the median income 16.

How have condo prices compared with incomes since 2022?

URA's transaction records give the actual quantum paid for condominiums and apartments over the last five years, from October 2021 7. The figures below cover full calendar years of contracts, leave out landed homes, executive condominiums and bulk purchases, and split sales by type 7. A new sale is a unit bought from the developer. A resale is a unit resold after the project's completion.

Source: URA private residential transactions 7; Department of Statistics 1; Sightlines analysis.

The median resale condo rose 20.0% from 2022 to 2025, close to the 18.8% rise in the median income 17. The median new-sale condo rose 8.4%, from $1,950,300 to $2,114,000 7. Measured in years of the median household's income, a new-sale unit cost 16.06 years in 2022 and 14.65 years in 2025 17.

That fall needs care. A median new-sale price depends heavily on which projects launched that year, where they were and how big their units were 7. It does not show that the same new unit got cheaper. What it does show is that the typical new private home sold in 2025 took fewer years of the typical household's income than the typical one sold in 2022.

Contracts dated January to September 2026 put the median resale condo at $1,730,000 across 8,953 resales, and the median new sale at $2,232,950 across 5,202 sales 7. Sightlines treats them as provisional, since contracts from the latest months can still be added to URA's records. Income figures for 2026 are not yet published, so no 2026 ratio can be worked out.

A worked example: one median household in 2019 and in 2025

Take a household earning exactly the median in each year, and set aside savings, CPF balances and borrowing for now. The question is simply how many years of its gross income the median home cost.

In 2019, that household earned $9,442 a month, or $113,304 a year 1. The median four-room resale flat, at $400,000, cost 3.53 years of that income, or about 42 months 14.

In 2025, the median household earned $12,027 a month, or $144,324 a year 1. The median four-room resale flat, at $630,000, cost 4.37 years, or about 52 months 14. The flat now costs roughly ten more months of gross pay.

Had the flat kept its 2019 ratio of 3.53 years, it would have cost about $509,511 in 2025 14. The actual median was $630,000, so the gap between price growth and income growth adds up to about $120,489 on a typical four-room flat 14.

For a private home, the same household in 2025 would have needed 11.56 years of income for the median resale condo, at $1,668,000, and 14.65 years for the median new sale, at $2,114,000 17. A common rule of thumb is that a first private purchase at the maximum loan-to-value needs about 29% of the price upfront in cash and CPF, buyer's stamp duty included. On the median resale condo, that rule of thumb points to about $483,720 upfront, or about 3.35 years of the median household's gross income, before a single monthly instalment 17.

Source: Department of Statistics 1; HDB 4; URA 7; Sightlines analysis.

Who do these averages not describe?

Every figure above is a median or an index. A household's own position can be quite different, for at least four reasons.

First, these are gross incomes from work. They include employer CPF contributions, so they are higher than take-home pay, and they leave out income from investments, rent and government transfers 1. A household with one earner, a retired member or irregular income will sit lower than these figures suggest.

Second, buyers are not necessarily the median household. A ratio built from the median household's income is a measure of how far prices have moved from what typical earnings can carry, not of what any buyer actually paid relative to their own income.

Third, the median flat is not every flat. The median four-room resale price of $630,000 in 2025 is the middle of sales across every town, lease age and floor area 4. A household looking at an older flat in an outer town, or a newer one in a central town, faces a different ratio. The same is true of condos, where the middle half of resales in 2025 sold for between $1,230,000 and $2,300,000 7.

Fourth, these figures say nothing about new flats bought from HDB. They are not resales, so they sit outside the resale index and the resale records 45. Executive condominiums are also left out of the condo figures here 7.

What would change the picture from here?

The past six years contain two different markets. The way they differ is the most useful thing to take from this data.

From 2019 to 2022, prices pulled ahead of incomes. HDB's index rose 25.3% while the median income rose 7.2%, and the four-room ratio jumped from 3.53 to 4.24 years 145. A household that bought in 2019 paid fewer years of income than one that bought the same kind of flat three years later. Anyone who waited paid more of their income for the same kind of flat.

From 2022 to 2025, incomes came much closer to keeping pace. The four-room ratio moved from 4.24 to 4.37 years, and the resale condo ratio from 11.45 to 11.56 years 147. Waiting over those three years cost a median household relatively little in terms of income, though it still cost more in dollars.

So the honest summary for 2026 is this. Homes are still clearly less affordable relative to incomes than they were in 2019, and the step up happened in 2020 to 2022. Since then, the gap has not widened much. HDB's index has been flat or lower in every quarter since the third quarter of 2025, ending at a flash 202.4 in the third quarter of 2026 5.

Three things could change that. If incomes rise faster than prices, the ratios may ease. In 2025 the median income rose 6.3% in nominal terms, and both condo ratios fell, though the four-room ratio still edged up from 4.35 to 4.37 years 1247. If resale prices resume rising faster than pay, the 2019 to 2022 pattern could repeat. And interest rates, which this guide does not cover, change what a given price costs each month, so the same ratio can feel very different from one year to the next.

None of this tells a household whether to buy now or later. Prices could go either way. A household that needs a home for the next ten years or more is exposed far less to any single year's ratio than one that may need to sell within five.

How can you use this for your own decision?

The rule that falls out of this data is simple and reusable. Divide the price of the home you are looking at by your household's annual income from work, including employer CPF contributions, and compare the answer with the official benchmarks above.

1. Work out your ratio. A household earning $12,000 a month gross, or $144,000 a year, looking at a $630,000 flat, has a ratio of 4.375 years 4. That is about the 2025 median for a four-room resale flat 14.
2. Compare it with the right benchmark. For four-room resale flats, the median household's ratio was 4.37 years in 2025 and 3.53 in 2019 14. For resale condos, it was 11.56 years in 2025 17.
3. Check the direction, not just the level. Since 2022, the ratios have moved little. If prices for the homes you want are rising faster than your pay, that gap is the part to watch.
4. Read the index, not one headline price. A single record sale says little. HDB's index and URA's index adjust for the mix of homes sold, so they show what is happening to the same kind of home 56.

This is general information, not financial advice. Check the current rules with IRAS, HDB, CPF Board or your bank before you commit.