About this calculator
Three grants can land in your CPF Ordinary Account before you spend a dollar of your own savings. The Enhanced CPF Housing Grant is the big one: since the August 2024 enhancement it pays first-timer families up to S$120,000 at household incomes of S$1,500 a month or less, stepping down through the income bands to S$5,000 at S$8,501–9,000 — singles receive exactly half at half the income bands. Resale buyers add the CPF Housing Grant (S$80,000 for a 2- to 4-room flat, S$50,000 for 5-room and larger, for families) and, if they buy near or with parents or children, the Proximity Housing Grant (S$20,000 near, S$30,000 together). Stack every grant and a resale purchase can carry up to S$230,000 of grant money for a family.
Then the part buyers underestimate. Every dollar of CPF used for housing — your own OA savings and the grants alike — accrues interest at the OA rate of 2.5% a year, as if it had never left your account. When you sell, that principal plus all the accrued interest is refunded to your OA before you see cash proceeds. It is not a penalty and the money is still yours, but it is locked back into retirement savings: S$300,000 of CPF used on a flat becomes a S$384,025 refund after ten years. The Valuation Limit adds one more rule for bank-loan purchases — total CPF use is capped at the lower of the price or the valuation at purchase, and using CPF beyond it requires the Basic Retirement Sum (S$110,200 for members turning 55 in 2026) to be set aside.
How to use it
- Enter the price, your household type and your average monthly household income over the last 12 months — that income sets your EHG band.
- Choose new or resale: the Family Grant and Proximity Grant exist only on resale flats.
- Enter the OA balance you are willing to commit; grants are added to it automatically.
- Set the loan share and how long you expect to keep the flat.
- Read the split: how much CPF carries, how much cash you still need, and what will be refunded to your OA at the sale year you chose.
The formula
The EHG is a step table, not a formula — each S$500 income band has its published amount, and the singles table is exactly half. The accrued interest compounds at the CPF Ordinary Account rate of 2.5% a year, the same rate your OA would have earned, which is the whole logic of the refund: the account is made whole, and the cash you receive from a sale is what remains after the loan is repaid and the OA is topped back up.
Worked example
A first-timer couple with a S$4,000 average monthly household income buying a S$550,000 resale 4-room flat: the EHG pays S$80,000 and the resale Family Grant adds S$80,000 — S$160,000 of grants before their own savings are touched. With S$80,000 in the OA and a 75% loan of S$412,500, the S$137,500 balance of the price is covered entirely by CPF, so the cash needed on top of the loan is S$0. Sell after ten years and S$137,500 of that CPF, grown at 2.5%, means S$176,012 goes back into their OA — the grants included, because grant money is CPF money once it lands.
Sources: HDB Enhanced CPF Housing Grant table as enhanced 20 August 2024 (up to S$120,000 for families; singles half), CPF Housing Grant and Proximity Housing Grant amounts, CPF Board housing withdrawal and refund rules, and the Basic Retirement Sum of S$110,200 for members turning 55 in 2026 — current October 2026. Last updated: October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to refund the housing grants when I sell?
Yes — grants are credited to your CPF account, so they are part of the CPF used for the flat, and the refund on sale is principal plus accrued interest at 2.5% on the whole amount, grants included. The money returns to your Ordinary Account and can be used for the next home or left for retirement; it is not lost, but it does not come back to you as cash.
What is the Valuation Limit, in plain terms?
For a purchase with a bank loan, the total CPF you may use for that property is capped at the Valuation Limit — the lower of the purchase price and the property's valuation when you bought it. If the price runs ahead of the valuation, the gap is cash-only. Once the CPF used plus accrued interest reaches the limit, further OA withdrawals for the instalments stop unless you have set aside the Basic Retirement Sum in your accounts.
Can CPF pay my stamp duty and monthly instalments too?
Yes — BSD and legal fees can be paid from the OA, and bank or HDB instalments can be serviced from the OA monthly, all counting toward the same CPF-used total that accrues interest and is refunded on sale. This calculator models CPF used toward the price itself; add duty and instalment use on top if you plan to run everything through CPF.
What if I sell for less than the refund amount?
If the flat is sold at market value, you are generally not required to top up a shortfall in cash when the proceeds (after repaying the loan) cannot cover the full CPF refund — the refund is simply what the proceeds allow. Sell below market value, for example to a relative, and CPF Board can require the shortfall to be made good. The accrued-interest clock is the strongest argument for not over-using CPF on a short hold.
Why does the EHG stop at S$9,000 of income?
The EHG is aimed at lower- and middle-income first-timers; above a S$9,000 average monthly household income for families (S$4,500 for singles) the grant phases to zero. The resale Family Grant reaches further — its ceiling is S$14,000 (S$7,000 for singles) — and the Proximity Grant has no income ceiling at all, because it is priced as a caregiving incentive rather than income support.
What formula does this cpf housing calculator — grants, cpf vs cash & accrued interest calculator use?
Grants = EHG(income band) + resale Family Grant + Proximity Grant; CPF used = min(OA + grants, price − loan); Refund on sale = CPF used × 1.025^years The EHG is a step table, not a formula — each S$500 income band has its published amount, and the singles table is exactly half. The accrued interest compounds at the CPF Ordinary Account rate of 2.5% a year, the same rate your OA would have earned, which is the whole logic of the refund: the account is made whole, and the cash you receive from a sale is what remains after the loan is repaid and the OA is topped back up. The worked example on this page applies the formula step by step with real numbers, so you can verify the result by hand.