Freehold vs leasehold: which districts pay a psf premium?
Freehold condos sold for a median 10% more per sq ft than 99-year leasehold in Oct 2024 to Sep 2026. By district, the gap runs from +26% to -22%.
Freehold condos and apartments sold for a median S$1,875 per sq ft in URA resales from Oct 2024 to Sep 2026. Condos on 99-year leases sold for S$1,707. That is a 10% premium for freehold, but district by district it ranges from +26% in District 26 to -22% in District 14.
They cover private non-landed resales (condos and apartments, not ECs) with one unit per caveat. That is 7,571 freehold and 15,965 99-year leasehold deals in 24 months.
Other tenures, such as 999-year leases, are left out. “Psf” means price per square foot.
The premium by district
| District | Freehold psf | 99-yr leasehold psf | Freehold premium | Deals (FH / LH) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D26 | S$1,677 | S$1,330 | +26.1% | 85 / 76 |
| D2 | S$2,394 | S$1,952 | +22.7% | 78 / 196 |
| D23 | S$1,592 | S$1,364 | +16.7% | 152 / 993 |
| D4 | S$2,038 | S$1,753 | +16.3% | 65 / 507 |
| D15 | S$1,869 | S$1,647 | +13.5% | 1,448 / 602 |
| D10 | S$2,281 | S$2,083 | +9.5% | 1,097 / 382 |
| D11 | S$2,073 | S$1,898 | +9.2% | 574 / 108 |
| D9 | S$2,361 | S$2,255 | +4.7% | 897 / 352 |
| D21 | S$1,793 | S$1,761 | +1.8% | 447 / 305 |
| D16 | S$1,550 | S$1,524 | +1.7% | 186 / 1,046 |
| D19 | S$1,621 | S$1,668 | -2.8% | 345 / 2,362 |
| D27 | S$1,246 | S$1,282 | -2.8% | 32 / 600 |
| D17 | S$1,220 | S$1,286 | -5.1% | 232 / 296 |
| D20 | S$1,797 | S$1,972 | -8.9% | 118 / 692 |
| D5 | S$1,698 | S$1,873 | -9.3% | 263 / 1,194 |
| D3 | S$1,979 | S$2,224 | -11% | 82 / 1,094 |
| D13 | S$1,763 | S$2,004 | -12% | 135 / 523 |
| D12 | S$1,672 | S$1,902 | -12.1% | 465 / 242 |
| D8 | S$1,681 | S$1,965 | -14.4% | 206 / 153 |
| D14 | S$1,548 | S$1,983 | -21.9% | 621 / 751 |
Source: URA caveat data (Sep 2026). Medians are not quality-adjusted. The leasehold figure mixes old and young leases.
Freehold costs more in D26, D15, D23 and D4, and in prime D2. It costs less in D14, D12, D13 and D8.
The raw gap mixes tenure with age. A district’s leasehold stock can be 5 years old or 40 years old.
Lease left changes the answer
To control for age, we compared freehold with leasehold of a similar lease left, in the same district. We then averaged the district gaps by deal count.
| Lease left | Freehold premium | Districts / deals |
|---|---|---|
| Under 60 years | +59% | 7 / 454 |
| 60 to 79 years | +19% | 18 / 3,382 |
| 80 to 89 years | -5% | 19 / 5,964 |
| 90 years or more | -17% | 16 / 2,638 |
Source: URA caveat data (Sep 2026). Districts with 30 or more freehold deals and 10 or more leasehold deals in the band. Young leases are often newer, better-placed projects, so this is not the price of tenure alone.
Against leasehold with under 60 years left, freehold sold for 59% more per sq ft. Against 80 to 89 years left, leasehold sold for about 5% more. Against 90 years or more, leasehold sold for about 17% more.
Young leasehold condos are often newer, closer to the MRT and better finished.
Read the table as a rough ladder. The more lease that is gone, the more a buyer paid for freehold. That fits what a 60-year leasehold is worth and how older 99-year homes behave.
What is behind the freehold premium, and why it varies
Analysts and the rules point to four forces.
1. Lease left. This is a measured rule and a measured pattern. The table above shows the premium rising as the lease shortens.
The CPF Board allows no CPF use if the lease left is under 20 years. It pro-rates the use when the lease ends before the youngest buyer turns 95.
ERA’s Eugene Lim told The Straits Times (1 April 2025, reprinted on cos.sg) that shorter leases make full loans harder to get.
2. Scarce freehold supply. EdgeProp notes (5 March 2026) that Government land for homes is all 99-year. So new freehold land comes almost only from collective sales.
The agency site TRIBE counted freehold at 34.7% of 101 marketed new-home projects but 10.6% of units. The median was 53 units a project against 448 for 99-year ones (2 October 2026).
3. Who buys where. A Straits Times report on an ERA study found freehold kept its profit edge in prime areas with few launches.
A property agent, Stefanie Wong, said wealthy buyers in D9, D10 and D11 favour freehold for legacy planning. The same report says leasehold near MRT stations in mature estates also commands a premium.
OrangeTee’s Christine Sun noted that leasehold prices were 20.7% below freehold in 2014 and 3.7% above in 2024. EdgeProp reports the resale gap narrowing from S$311 psf in 2015 to S$234 psf in 2025, but widening for freehold condos over 40 years old.
4. Why districts differ: how young the leasehold is.
In D26, D2, D4 and D15, only 1% to 17% of leasehold resales were in leases that began in 2010 or later.
In D12, D13 and D14, where freehold costs less, the share was 71% to 94%. Young leasehold sells for more, so the gap closes or reverses.
The match is loose. D23 has 52% young leasehold and still shows +16.7%, so location and size matter too. TRIBE found freehold new units about 36% larger than leasehold, which moves the quantum more than psf.
Analysts disagree on the trend. Some see the gap closing as leasehold near MRT wins buyers. Others see freehold holding up where land is scarce.
Both fit the district pattern.
How to use this
- Compare like with like: same district, similar age, similar size.
- Check lease left. A 1995 project has less lease left than a 2020 one.
- A district premium shows what buyers paid, not what they will pay later.
