Does a 2 bedroom new launch make more money than a resale?

Not across the market. Of the 2 bedroom condos bought between 2017 and 2021 and resold from 2022, a resale returned more on the buyer's own cash than a new launch in every purchase year, by 2.6 to 9.7 percentage points a year. The rest of the 2 bedroom picture is on the 2 bedroom condo guide.

That comparison is the one most often quoted, and it is not quite fair. Many resales in it were units more than a decade old. Compared with a resale bought within 5 years of completion, launch still came out behind in every year, but by much less. Where the answer really depends is the region: in the suburbs a nearly-new resale beat launch every year, on the city fringe launch came out ahead in 2 years of 5, and in prime launch returned close to nothing.

Every return here is measured the way a launch is usually argued for: on the buyer's own cash, with the loan drawn in stages as the building goes up.

What is in this note

• Did a 2 bedroom resale return more than a new launch?: what a 2 bedroom launch and a 2 bedroom resale returned, bought in the same year and sold from 2022.
• Why is that not a fair comparison?: how old the resales were, and where each side's homes were.
• What if the resale was nearly new?: launch against resales bought within 3 years and 5 years of completion.
• Does the answer change by region?: the same comparison in the suburbs (OCR), the city fringe (RCR) and prime (CCR).
• How does the mortgage rate change the answer?: how the answer changes with the mortgage rate, against the rates buyers actually paid.
• Why does a launch start behind?: what a launch buyer pays, and when, against a resale buyer.

Did a 2 bedroom resale return more than a new launch?

Every 2 bedroom bought in a given year and resold from 2022, launch against resale:

Bought	Launch	Resale	Gap (pts)
2017	7.8% (300)	13.3% (263)	5.5
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	6.0% (160)	12.6% (240)	6.6
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	10.3% (236)	12.9% (115)	2.6
2019	9.5% (629)	13.3% (219)	3.8
2020	9.2% (756)	15.2% (286)	6.1
2021	4.7% (396)	14.5% (324)	9.7

Resale is ahead in every year, by between 2.6 percentage points (purchases from 6 July 2018) and 9.7 points in 2021.

On its own, this says a resale made more money. It also compares two different kinds of home. The median price per square foot each side paid:

Bought	Launch, per square foot	Resale, per square foot
2017	$1,417	$1,228
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	$1,589	$1,208
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	$1,589	$1,264
2019	$1,612	$1,340
2020	$1,684	$1,256
2021	$1,793	$1,356

Why is that not a fair comparison?

Many resales in that comparison were old. Split by how long after completion the unit was bought:

Bought	Nearly-new	Older
2017	111 (2 yrs)	152 (15 yrs)
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	103 (3 yrs)	137 (14 yrs)
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	56 (3 yrs)	59 (12 yrs)
2019	91 (4 yrs)	128 (14 yrs)
2020	95 (4 yrs)	191 (12 yrs)
2021	104 (4 yrs)	220 (11 yrs)

Between 32% and 49% of resales were nearly new; the rest were units 11 to 15 years past completion, bought at a much lower price per square foot. A launch is a new home, so the comparison everyone quotes partly sets a new home against a much older home.

The two sides also sit in different places. Launches lean heavily to the city fringe (RCR), 45% to 60% of launch pairs in each year against 27% to 34% of resale pairs. Prime (CCR) homes were 1.7% to 12.9% of launch pairs, against 16.0% to 26.6% of resale pairs. A pooled comparison mixes age, location and price, not only how the home was bought.

What if the resale was nearly new?

The fairer comparison is a launch against a resale bought soon after completion, when the two are close to the same home:

Bought	Launch	Nearly-new	Older
2017	7.8% (300)	9.1% (111)	15.9% (152)
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	6.0% (160)	10.4% (103)	13.8% (137)
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	10.3% (236)	12.6% (56)	13.2% (59)
2019	9.5% (629)	12.1% (91)	14.0% (128)
2020	9.2% (756)	13.9% (95)	15.5% (191)
2021	4.7% (396)	12.7% (104)	14.7% (220)

Against a nearly-new resale, launch is still behind in every year, by 1.3 percentage points in 2017 up to 8.0 points in 2021. Among resales bought within 3 years of completion, resale returned more than launch in every purchase period.

Older resales returned the most of all three, in every year.

Does the answer change by region?

The same comparison inside each region, launch against a resale within 5 years of completion.

The suburbs (OCR)

Bought	Launch	Nearly-new	Older
2017	9.2% (95)	11.3% (59)	18.1% (63)
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	8.3% (67)	11.1% (60)	17.0% (58)
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	9.1% (115)	13.7% (39)	17.6% (16)
2019	9.3% (285)	14.8% (51)	16.0% (48)
2020	8.7% (329)	15.2% (65)	19.1% (73)
2021	6.5% (168)	13.9% (61)	17.8% (102)

In the suburbs, a nearly-new resale beat launch in every year, by 2.1 to 7.4 percentage points. Removing the largest project from either side changes no year's answer (see Largest project removed in Method).

The city fringe (RCR)

Bought	Launch	Nearly-new	Older
2017	7.9% (181)	8.8% (24)	14.9% (47)
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	5.5% (86)	9.4% (34)	13.2% (45)
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	10.9% (117)	not shown (fewer than 11 pairs)	13.6% (25)
2019	9.9% (321)	8.4% (28)	15.9% (44)
2020	10.6% (395)	9.0% (24)	15.6% (74)
2021	4.5% (177)	11.5% (37)	14.7% (72)

On the city fringe, launch came out ahead of a nearly-new resale in 2019 and 2020, and behind in 2017, the first half of 2018 and 2021. Removing the largest project from each side changes one answer: in 2017 launch returns 8.3% against 7.9% for the nearly-new resale. Purchases from 6 July 2018 have only 9 nearly-new resales, too few to print. The nearly-new side is 24 to 37 resales in each of the other rows. Older resale was ahead of launch in every year.

Prime (CCR)

In prime, a 2 bedroom bought at launch returned close to nothing, between -2.3% and 0.6% a year, on 23 to 51 launch pairs; both halves of 2018 have too few launch pairs to print (7 and 4). An older prime resale returned 7.9% to 14.3% across the same years. The launch figures lean on single projects: removing the largest takes the launch pairs from 24 to 12 in 2017 and from 32 to 15 in 2020, and changes the sign in 3 years, so we read prime as a direction, not a level. Nearly-new prime resales are too few to compare except in 2017 and 2019.

How does the mortgage rate change the answer?

Everything above assumes a 2.5% mortgage rate for the whole hold. The rate matters more to a resale buyer, who borrows the whole loan on day one, than to a launch buyer, whose loan is drawn in stages over about 3 years. So the higher the rate, the better a launch does.

The rates these buyers actually paid ran from about 1% to just under 5%: low when they bought, then above 4% through 2023 and 2024. Against that range:

• Against all resales, launch would have needed a rate above 5% to come out ahead in any year. At the rates buyers actually paid, resale was ahead in every year.
• In the suburbs (OCR), against a nearly-new resale, launch needed 4.5% to 10.6%, so only 2017 sits clearly inside what buyers paid; the first half of 2018, at 5.0%, sits at its top edge.
• On the city fringe (RCR), against a nearly-new resale, launch came out ahead at any rate above 0.9% in 2019 and 2020. Purchases from 6 July 2018 have too few nearly-new resales to tell.

The breakeven rate is the mortgage rate at which launch and resale would have returned the same. Read it against your own rate: for a 2017 purchase in the suburbs, the figure is 4.5%, so a buyer borrowing below 4.5% did better with a nearly-new resale, and one borrowing above it did better with the launch.

Bought	All regions	Suburbs	City fringe
2017	3.7%	4.5%	3.4%
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	6.4%	5.0%	6.0%
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	5.0%	7.5%	not shown (fewer than 11 pairs)
2019	5.3%	8.6%	0.8%
2020	7.6%	10.0%	0.9%
2021	11.7%	10.6%	11.1%

Why does a launch start behind?

Three things work against a launch from the start. For the 2020 buyers:

• It costs more per square foot. A median launch was $1,684 per square foot for 689 sqft. A median resale was $1,256 per square foot for 904 sqft.
• It earns no rent while it is built. A launch buyer goes 38 months without rent. A resale buyer is renting it out from the first month.
• It does not save cash upfront. By the end of the first year a launch buyer has paid the same quarter of the price in cash as a resale buyer, plus the same stamp duty and legal fees.

What a launch does defer is the loan. By month 12 a launch buyer had drawn 30% of the price in total, cash and loan together, rising to 45% by month 24 and 85% by month 36. A resale buyer had drawn all of it on day one. Less borrowed means less interest, which is why a higher rate helps a launch.

What this tells you

A 2 bedroom resale returned more than a new launch for buyers from 2017 to 2021, in every year, on the buyer's own cash. Against all resales the gap was 2.6 to 9.7 percentage points a year.

Part of that is because many resales were old, 11 to 15 years past completion, and those older resales returned the most of anything here. Against a resale bought within 5 years of completion, launch was still behind in every year, but by less: 1.3 to 8.0 points.

Where it really depends is the region. In the suburbs (OCR), a nearly-new resale beat launch in every year. On the city fringe (RCR), launch came out ahead of a nearly-new resale in 2 of 5 years, 2019 and 2020. In prime (CCR), launch returned close to nothing while older resales returned 7.9% to 14.3%.

A launch does not save cash upfront. What it defers is the loan, so the higher the mortgage rate, the more a launch gains on a resale. At the 2.5% rate used here, resale came out ahead everywhere except the city fringe in 2019 and 2020. At the higher rates these buyers actually paid, launch would also have come out ahead of a nearly-new resale for 2017 purchases: above 3.7% across the whole market, 4.5% in the suburbs and 3.4% on the city fringe. A 3 bedroom gives the same answer: resale ahead overall and in the suburbs, launch competitive on the city fringe.

For the other half of the decision, buying at launch or waiting to buy in the same development, see Should you buy a 2 bedroom at launch, or wait for the same condo?.

What this does not tell you

• What happens with a second property. Every figure assumes a first property with no additional buyer's stamp duty.
• What a different buying window would show. These are homes bought from 2017 to 2021 and sold from 2022, a period of strong resale prices. A different window could give a different answer.
• What each buyer actually paid. Every figure uses a single 2.5% rate for the whole hold. Real mortgage rates were near 1% for many of these buyers when they bought, and above 4% through 2023 and 2024. The breakeven rates show how much the answer depends on that.
• What a major renovation would do. The preparation cost we tested covers readying a unit for a tenant, not a full renovation. An older resale that needs a new kitchen or bathroom costs more than we allowed for.
• What prime launch returns really are. They rest on few projects, and the largest moves them by several points.
• Why older resales returned the most. A lower starting price per square foot is the likely reason, but this data does not show it.

Method and data notes. Data to 31 August 2026.

Each figure is a pair: the same 2 bedroom unit bought and later resold, from URA caveat data for private condominiums and apartments, excluding collective sales and sub-sales. Seven developments whose bedroom labels in the source records are under review are left out of every figure here, and so are the Reflections at Keppel Bay units whose recorded size does not fit the bedroom count. A pair counts when the unit was bought between 2017 and 2021, held 4 to 6 years, and resold from 2022. A launch is a unit bought as a new sale; a resale is a unit bought as a resale. A nearly-new resale is a resale bought within 3 years, or within 5 years, of the project's completion.

Return is the annualised internal rate of return on the buyer's own cash. The buyer borrows at 2.5% a year up to the bank loan limit in force on the purchase date for a first housing loan, 80% before 6 July 2018 and 75% from then, and pays the rest in cash. A resale buyer pays the cash and draws the whole loan at purchase. A launch buyer pays the cash first, a 5% booking fee and 15% at the option to purchase, then, where the limit was 75%, part of the first progressive payment, with the rest drawn from the loan in stages to completion. Buyer's stamp duty is charged at the schedule in force on the purchase date, with legal fees of $3,000 on each purchase and sale. The buyer is a citizen buying a first property, who paid no additional buyer's stamp duty at any purchase date here, and no seller's stamp duty applies: every hold is at least 4 years, longer than any schedule in force for these purchases. Rent is the median rent per square foot for a 2 bedroom in the region, net of vacancy, maintenance, property tax and fees for renting out the home; a resale earns it from the first month, a launch from 2 months after completion. Property tax is charged at the non-owner-occupier rates in force in each year of the hold, which apply to a residential unit that is rented out or left vacant, on an annual value taken as the unit's modelled market rent.

We also tested a one-off cost to prepare each unit for its first tenant, 2 months' rent for a nearly-new resale, 4 months' rent for an older resale and 1 month's rent for a launch at completion: it lowers every return by up to 1.4 percentage points and changes no comparison in this note.

The rates buyers actually paid are from Global Property Guide's series of quarterly average mortgage rates in Singapore.

Figures are medians. A figure is printed only when it rests on at least 11 pairs; a cell with fewer is marked "not shown".

Purchases in 2018 are shown in two rows, 1 January to 5 July and 6 July to 31 December, because the bank loan limit for a first housing loan fell from 80% to 75% on 6 July 2018.

Each purchase is priced on the stamp duties and loan limit in force on its contract date. The official rules key some of these on the date the option to purchase was granted, which the transaction record does not carry, so a purchase whose option was granted before a change and exercised after it is priced on the newer rule. Only purchases contracted in the few weeks after a change can be affected: after 20 February 2018 they may be charged the higher buyer's stamp duty (worth at most about half a point of return), and after 6 July 2018 the lower loan limit. Purchases from 1 January to 5 July 2018 are reported as one row, although buyer's stamp duty rose on 20 February 2018. Each figure in that row is priced on the buyer's stamp duty in force on the median purchase date of the purchases behind it; pricing it on the other schedule moves no figure in the row by more than 0.3 points. For each figure we also recomputed the result with the largest project removed, and the text says where that changes the answer.

Data to 31 August 2026.

Largest project removed

The check behind the suburbs sentence above: the single largest project on one side is taken out and that side's return is re-computed on the purchases left. Return per year on the buyer's own cash, pairs in brackets.

Bought	Suburbs, launch	Suburbs, nearly-new resale
2017	8.0% (78)	10.3% (55)
2018, 1 Jan to 5 Jul	5.3% (43)	11.9% (55)
2018, 6 Jul to 31 Dec	8.1% (72)	13.6% (37)
2019	8.3% (202)	14.7% (48)
2020	8.2% (255)	14.9% (54)
2021	5.8% (140)	14.0% (57)

30 October 2026. This note placed homes in market segments by postal district. URA places them by planning area, which moves about one in seven private sales between regions. The figures by region here use the earlier segments and differ from what the same records give now. How regions are set: How we measure prices and sales.