Singapore new condos cost 50% more psf than resales, but only 31% more in quantum

Across Singapore, condos sold new by developers fetched a median $2,668 psf in the 12 months to September 2026, about 50% more per square foot than resale condos at $1,775 psf 1. On quantum, the gap was only 31%: a median $2.26m for a new unit against $1.72m for a resale 1.

That difference between the two gaps is the most useful thing in the data. It means the typical new unit sold over the past year cost a lot more per square foot but not nearly as much more in total, which is consistent with new units being smaller. In URA's Core Central Region, the gap even turns negative on quantum 1. This guide sets out the figures by market segment and by year, and shows how a household can use them.

All figures are from Sightlines' own queries of URA's private residential transaction records, condominiums and apartments only, with landed homes and bulk purchases left out 1. In URA's records, a new sale is bought from the developer, a sub sale is a resale made before the project is completed, and a resale is one made after completion 1. Quantum means the full price paid. Psf divides it by the strata area URA records, in square feet 1. Windows are counted in contract months, and the most recent months are provisional because URA's records keep filling as caveats are lodged.

How big is the gap across Singapore today?

URA recorded 20,500 condo and apartment sales island-wide with contract dates from October 2025 to September 2026: 8,086 new sales, 639 sub sales and 11,775 resales 1.

Source: URA Data Service, private residential transactions, condominiums and apartments, all of Singapore 1; Sightlines analysis.

Sub sales sit between the two, at a median $2,301 psf and $1.93m 1. They are homes in projects not yet completed, so they are close to new in age, and their median psf was about 14% below the new-sale median 1.

Where is the gap largest, and where does it reverse?

URA splits the private market into three segments. The Core Central Region (CCR) is postal districts 9, 10 and 11, the Downtown Core Planning Area and Sentosa 2. The Rest of Central Region (RCR) is the remainder of the Central Region 2. The Outside Central Region (OCR) is everywhere outside the Central Region, including the East, North East, North and West Planning Regions 2.

Source: URA Data Service, private residential transactions by market segment 1; gaps are Sightlines calculations.

On psf, the three segments look alike: new sales cost 41% to 44% more than resales 1. On quantum, they split. In the RCR and OCR, the typical new unit cost about 37% more than the typical resale 1. In the CCR, the typical new unit cost about 11% less than the typical resale, $2.39m against $2.68m, even though it cost about 41% more per square foot 1.

A lower median quantum at a much higher median psf points to the new units sold in the CCR being, as a group, much smaller than the resale units sold there 1. The records used here give prices and psf, not unit sizes, so this is an inference from the two medians rather than a measured size. For a buyer, this is the clearest example of why a psf figure alone cannot say whether a home is expensive.

Another detail is worth noticing. The RCR's new-sale median quantum, $2.48m, was higher than the CCR's, $2.39m, over the same months 1. Segment labels describe location; they do not on their own tell a buyer which homes cost more in total.

Is the gap widening or narrowing?

Island-wide, the psf gap between new and resale condos has narrowed for three years running, measured by contract year 1.

Source: URA Data Service, private residential transactions, all of Singapore 1; gaps are Sightlines calculations. 2026 covers January to September, and its latest months are provisional.

The psf gap peaked at about 57% in 2023 and was about 44% in the first nine months of 2026 1. Over the same period, the resale median psf rose from $1,441 in 2022 to $1,778 in 2026 so far, about 23%, while the new-sale median rose from $2,225 to $2,566, about 15% 1. Resale prices have been catching up.

The quantum gap moved in a narrower band, between 27% and 40%, and has stayed well below the psf gap in every year 1. In every year since 2022, the typical new unit has carried a much higher psf than a typical resale, at a smaller premium in total.

In the CCR alone, the quantum gap was negative in four of the five years, ranging from -16% in 2025 to +9% in 2024, while the psf gap stayed between 39% and 50% 1. 2024 was the exception, and also the year with by far the fewest new CCR sales: 374, against more than 1,000 in each of the other years 1.

Source: URA Data Service, private residential transactions, Core Central Region 1; gaps are Sightlines calculations. In 2023 the two median quanta were within $6,000 of each other 1.

The CCR pattern is the clearest version of the island-wide one. Prime-district resales have carried a median quantum of $2.35m to $2.68m in every year since 2022, while the new-sale median moved with whichever projects were launching 1. A buyer comparing a new prime unit with a prime resale on total price alone would often conclude the new unit was cheaper, when per square foot it was 39% to 50% dearer 1.

How does the price index compare with these medians?

Medians describe what changed hands. URA also publishes a quarterly price index for non-landed private homes by market segment 6. Between the fourth quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2026, that index rose about 11% in the CCR, 10% in the RCR and 24% in the OCR 6.

The medians tell a broadly similar story in the OCR, where the resale median psf rose about 25% between 2022 and the first nine months of 2026 1. In the RCR, the resale median psf rose about 24% over those periods, much faster than the RCR index 16. The periods are not identical, and a median moves whenever the mix of homes sold changes, so the two should be read side by side, never as one number checking the other.

URA's flash estimate for the third quarter of 2026, released on 1 October 2026, put non-landed prices up 2.2% in the OCR and 0.2% in the RCR, and down 0.1% in the CCR 5. URA said its full third-quarter figures are due on 23 October 2026 and that past flash estimates have differed from the actual changes 5.

What does a $2m budget buy, new or resale?

A worked example turns the medians into floor area. Take a household with a purchase budget of $2m, before stamp duties and other costs, a figure inside the middle half of island-wide quanta for both new sales and resales over the past year 1.

Source: median psf from URA Data Service 1; floor areas are $2,000,000 divided by each median psf, rounded, a Sightlines calculation.

At the medians, the same $2m buys about 29% to 33% less floor area new than on the resale market, depending on the segment 1. That is the core trade: a new unit brings a fresh lease and a new building, and the household pays for them in space.

The table is a screen, not a shopping list. Medians mix studios with family units and old leases with young ones. A household that wants a three-bedroom unit should compare three-bedroom units, and a buyer weighing a new launch should compare it with resales of a similar age nearby.

Are new and old units measured the same way?

Not always. A joint circular from URA, SLA, BCA and SCDF changed floor area definitions for development applications submitted to URA from 1 June 2023, and for Government Land Sales sites launched for sale from 1 September 2022 3. Under the revised rules, floor areas are measured to the middle of the wall, all strata areas count as gross floor area, and voids are excluded from strata area 3.

URA's clarifications to the industry said that because strata air-conditioner ledges will be computed as gross floor area, such spaces in new developments are likely to be right-sized 4. URA's psf figure divides price by the recorded strata area 1. If a newer unit's recorded area leaves out space that an older unit's area counted, the newer unit's psf will look higher for the same quantum. The transaction records do not say which rules applied to each project, so this guide does not adjust for it. It is one more reason to read quantum beside psf.

What would change the answer?

Three things would move these gaps, and none is certain.

1. The launch pipeline. The new-sale median reflects whichever projects happened to be selling. A year heavy with large-unit prime launches, or with small-unit suburban ones, would shift the medians without any change in the market 1.
2. Completions. As projects complete, their later sales are recorded as resales rather than sub sales 1. That adds young homes to the resale pool and can pull the resale median psf up. It is one plausible reason the island-wide psf gap has narrowed since 2023, though the records alone cannot prove it.
3. The wider market. URA's index shows the OCR rising faster than the CCR and RCR since late 2022 6. If that continues, suburban resale prices may keep closing on new-launch prices there.

The decision rule that holds across all of this is short. Read psf to compare prices; read quantum to see what a household actually pays; and when the two gaps disagree, look at unit size before concluding that one option is cheap.

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