What is leasehold value as a percentage of freehold value in Singapore?

In the core central region, leasehold resales sold at 90 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,976 psf against $2,186 psf. In the rest of central region, leasehold resales sold at 109 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,837 psf against $1,683 psf. In the outside central region, leasehold resales sold at 91 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,348 psf against $1,479 psf. These are medians of resales only, measured on floor area, and not adjusted for how much lease the leasehold side has left.

Why does freehold sometimes look cheaper than leasehold?

Because almost everything built in Singapore this century is 99-year leasehold, so a comparison across all sales puts new launches on the leasehold side. A new sale ran a median $2,387 psf against $1,544 psf for a resale. Across every sale, freehold reads cheaper than leasehold in two of the three regions. That measures how new a flat is, wearing a tenure label.

Is a 999-year lease as good as freehold in Singapore?

Close enough that this site counts 999-year leases on the freehold side of the premium. On its own, across all sales, the 999-year bucket ran $1,787 psf over 2,380 sales against $1,969 psf for freehold and $1,802 psf for leasehold. Those are pooled figures across regions and sale types, so the gap between them is not a clean tenure finding either — there are too few 999-year sales to split three ways.

Which Singapore district has the biggest freehold premium?

D26, where freehold resales ran 32 per cent dearer than leasehold ones across 199 freehold and 220 leasehold sales. At the other end, D14 reads 19 per cent cheaper. 12 of the 23 districts with enough trade to compare show freehold selling below leasehold on resales — which is why a single national premium should not be quoted.

Is freehold worth more than leasehold in Singapore?

Yes, in most of Singapore, and by less than the number usually quoted. Comparing resale against resale inside the same region, freehold is 11 per cent dearer in the core central region (6,865 freehold resales against 4,122 leasehold); 8 per cent cheaper in the rest of central region (7,928 freehold resales against 10,545 leasehold); 10 per cent dearer in the outside central region (6,146 freehold resales against 34,080 leasehold). Pooled across the whole island freehold reads 19 per cent dearer — a bigger premium than in any single region, because freehold stock sits disproportionately in the dearer districts.

Core central region

+11%

$2,186 psf freehold against $1,976 psf leasehold, on resales.

Rest of central region

−8%

$1,683 psf freehold against $1,837 psf leasehold, on resales.

Outside central region

+10%

$1,479 psf freehold against $1,348 psf leasehold, on resales.

The premium reverses sign between regions, which is the first sign that a single national figure is hiding something. “Freehold” here counts 999-year leases with it, because a 999-year lease is a freehold in everything but the paperwork; it is broken out separately below.

What the premium is, region by region

Region by region, because URA divides the private market into three and they are not interchangeable:

Core central region — Districts 9, 10 and 11, the downtown core and Sentosa.
Rest of central region — The city fringe, inside the rest of the central area.
Outside central region — The suburbs, where most private housing is.

Freehold against leasehold, resales only, within each region

Median price per square foot of floor area. New sales and sub-sales excluded from both sides.

Region	Freehold	Leasehold	Leasehold as a share of freehold	Freehold premium
Core central region6,865 freehold resales, 4,122 leasehold	$2,186 psf	$1,976 psf	90%	+11%
Rest of central region7,928 freehold resales, 10,545 leasehold	$1,683 psf	$1,837 psf	109%	−8%
Outside central region6,146 freehold resales, 34,080 leasehold	$1,479 psf	$1,348 psf	91%	+10%
All three pooled20,939 freehold resales, 48,747 leasehold — the figure to avoid quoting	$1,745 psf	$1,467 psf	84%	+19%

A ratio is quoted only where both sides of the comparison carry enough resales that one penthouse cannot move it; thinner groupings are left out rather than estimated. Not adjusted for how much lease the leasehold side has left — that is the lease-decay measurement, and it is the better of the two answers.

A worked example

Take the suburbs, where most private housing is. Freehold resales ran $1,479 psf and leasehold resales $1,348 psf, a gap of $131 a square foot. On a flat of 1,001 sq ft — the median size out there — that is $130,922 more for the freehold title, or 10 per cent dearer. Apply the pooled national premium of 19 per cent to the same flat instead and you would expect to pay $255,114 more — 1.9 times the gap the suburbs actually show.

Why the national figure is bigger than every region

This is Simpson’s paradox, and it is not a subtlety — it is the difference between 19 per cent and 11 per cent dearer / 8 per cent cheaper / 10 per cent dearer. The two groups being compared are not spread the same way across Singapore.

33 per cent of freehold resales in this window are in the core central region, against 8 per cent of leasehold resales. Out in the suburbs it is the other way round: 70 per cent of leasehold resales against 29 per cent of freehold ones. So a national ratio sets a group weighted towards the dearest part of Singapore against a group weighted towards the cheapest, and reports the difference as a tenure premium. Most of it is a map.

Where each tenure trades

Share of each tenure’s resales falling in each region

Show the figures

Region	Freehold resales	Share of freehold	Leasehold resales	Share of leasehold
Core central region	6,865	33%	4,122	8%
Rest of central region	7,928	38%	10,545	22%
Outside central region	6,146	29%	34,080	70%

Freehold: core central region6,865 resales33%
Freehold: rest of central region7,928 resales38%
Freehold: outside central region6,146 resales29%
Leasehold: core central region4,122 resales8%
Leasehold: rest of central region10,545 resales22%
Leasehold: outside central region34,080 resales70%

The mechanism behind the paradox, in one picture. Freehold leans towards the dearest region and leasehold towards the cheapest. Pool them and the ratio inherits that difference. The per-region figures above have it removed, which is why every one of them is lower than the pooled number.

And why freehold looks cheaper if you count every sale

There is a second confound underneath the first, and it runs the other way. Nearly everything built in Singapore this century is 99-year leasehold, so the moment new launches are allowed into the comparison the leasehold side fills up with homes sold at a developer’s list price.

A new sale in this window ran a median $2,387 psf across 44,337 transactions; a resale ran $1,544 psf across 71,023. That is 1.55 times, and it has nothing to do with tenure. 46 per cent of leasehold flat sales were new launches or sub-sales, against 26 per cent of freehold ones.

Do it anyway and the result is the one that circulates as a surprise: across every sale, freehold reads cheaper than leasehold in two of the three regions. Both that figure and the pooled 19 per cent are arithmetically correct. Both are answers to a question nobody asked.

The comparison to avoid: all sales, by tenure, by region

Median price per square foot of floor area, including new launches and sub-sales

Region	Freehold	999-year	Leasehold	Freehold against leasehold
Core central region9,375 freehold, 886 999-year, 7,933 leasehold sales	$2,470 psf	$2,302 psf	$2,556 psf	−3%
Rest of central region10,436 freehold, 290 999-year, 24,941 leasehold sales	$1,848 psf	$1,559 psf	$2,273 psf	−19%
Outside central region6,223 freehold, 1,204 999-year, 57,554 leasehold sales	$1,548 psf	$1,531 psf	$1,548 psf	0%

Published so the trap is visible rather than described. Against the resale-only figures above: core central region reads 3 per cent cheaper here and 11 per cent dearer once new sales are taken out; rest of central region reads 19 per cent cheaper here and 8 per cent cheaper once new sales are taken out. The 999-year column is the same bucket discussed below.

District by district

One region is still a large place, so here is the same measurement inside each postal district with enough resales of each tenure to compare. 11 of 23 show freehold dearer and 12 show it cheaper. A premium that changes sign between neighbouring districts is not a market-wide constant, and should not be quoted as one.

Freehold premium by district, resales only

Freehold median price per square foot as a percentage above or below leasehold

District	Freehold	Leasehold	Resales, FH / LH	Premium
D26Upper Thomson, Springleaf	$1,563 psf	$1,183 psf	199 / 220	+32%
D02Anson, Tanjong Pagar	$2,331 psf	$1,904 psf	183 / 565	+22%
D21Upper Bukit Timah, Clementi Park	$1,694 psf	$1,426 psf	1,321 / 684	+19%
D01Raffles Place, Cecil	$2,301 psf	$1,988 psf	43 / 879	+16%
D10Ardmore, Bukit Timah	$2,227 psf	$1,949 psf	3,114 / 1,031	+14%
D23Hillview, Dairy Farm	$1,505 psf	$1,317 psf	748 / 3,950	+14%
D04Telok Blangah, Harbourfront	$1,963 psf	$1,761 psf	162 / 1,333	+12%
D15Katong, Joo Chiat	$1,729 psf	$1,573 psf	3,646 / 1,537	+10%
D11Watten Estate, Novena	$1,975 psf	$1,839 psf	1,368 / 286	+7%
D09Orchard, Cairnhill	$2,250 psf	$2,109 psf	2,365 / 751	+7%
D19Serangoon Garden, Hougang	$1,486 psf	$1,431 psf	1,215 / 8,777	+4%
D16Bedok, Upper East Coast	$1,414 psf	$1,419 psf	466 / 2,721	0%
D20Bishan, Ang Mo Kio	$1,723 psf	$1,762 psf	285 / 1,917	−2%
D18Tampines, Pasir Ris	$1,267 psf	$1,309 psf	42 / 5,483	−3%
D05Pasir Panjang, Hong Leong Garden	$1,601 psf	$1,659 psf	658 / 2,617	−4%
D17Loyang, Changi	$1,126 psf	$1,202 psf	665 / 819	−6%
D28Seletar, Yio Chu Kang	$1,302 psf	$1,394 psf	107 / 1,699	−7%
D27Yishun, Sembawang	$1,167 psf	$1,263 psf	89 / 3,380	−8%
D08Little India, Farrer Park	$1,634 psf	$1,815 psf	561 / 389	−10%
D12Balestier, Toa Payoh	$1,578 psf	$1,753 psf	1,441 / 544	−10%
D03Queenstown, Tiong Bahru	$1,879 psf	$2,121 psf	230 / 2,307	−11%
D13Macpherson, Braddell	$1,636 psf	$1,875 psf	319 / 1,152	−13%
D14Geylang, Eunos	$1,447 psf	$1,776 psf	1,709 / 1,638	−19%

Sorted from the largest premium to the largest discount. These are still medians within a district, not matched pairs: a district can hold a freehold street and a leasehold street that would never have sold for the same money whatever the tenure. The counts are in the table.

The 999-year lease, which is its own thing

Singapore has a third tenure that almost never gets its own number. A 999-year lease granted in the nineteenth century still has the best part of a millennium to run, which makes it a freehold for any purpose a buyer cares about — and it is why the premium above counts 999-year sales on the freehold side.

It is also thin. 2,380 of the flat sales in this window were 999-year, against 26,034 freehold and 90,428 leasehold. Across all sales it ran $1,787 psf against $1,969 psf for freehold, on a median unit of 1,141 sq ft against 1,044. The regional table above shows it reading below freehold in every region.

What that gap is not. It is not evidence that the market discounts a 999-year lease. These are pooled medians across sale types and across districts, with both confounds this page is about still in them, and 2,380 sales will not survive being split three ways. The honest statement is that 999-year stock is older, larger and differently located, and that there is not enough of it to say more.

Freehold

$1,969 psf

26,034 sales, median $1,980,000 on about 1,044 sq ft.

999-year lease

$1,787 psf

2,380 sales, median $2,015,000 on about 1,141 sq ft.

Leasehold

$1,802 psf

90,428 sales, median $1,625,000 on about 958 sq ft.

How this is measured

Every figure here comes from caveats lodged with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and read from its Data Service on Oct 2026: 131,264 private residential transactions from Oct 2021 to Oct 2026, refreshed nightly. URA serves a rolling five-year window and drops the oldest month as it adds the newest, so this site archives each month as it arrives.

Flats only, on floor area. A house is measured by its plot and a flat by its floor, so the two prices per square foot are different quantities and are never pooled here.
Resales only for the premium. New sales and sub-sales are excluded from both sides, for the reason above.
Medians, never means, with the sale count beside every one. A ratio is published only where both sides carry at least thirty resales; districts below that floor are absent from the table rather than shown with a wide number.
999-year counts as freehold in the premium, and separately in the national tenure split.
No adjustment for remaining lease. A leasehold resale with 90 years left and one with 55 are both in the leasehold column. That is what the lease-decay page measures, and it is the better answer to the question underneath this one.

The one confound nothing here removes: a freehold flat and a leasehold flat in the same district are still different buildings, of different ages, on different streets. Matched pairs would be better and the caveat data does not support them. See the full method.

Questions people ask

Is freehold worth more than leasehold in Singapore?: Yes in most of the island, and by less than the figure usually quoted. Comparing resales with resales inside the same region, freehold is 11 per cent dearer in the core central region (6,865 freehold resales against 4,122 leasehold); 8 per cent cheaper in the rest of central region (7,928 freehold resales against 10,545 leasehold); 10 per cent dearer in the outside central region (6,146 freehold resales against 34,080 leasehold). Pooled across all three regions freehold reads 19 per cent dearer, which is a bigger premium than in any single region because freehold stock sits disproportionately in the dearer districts — so a national ratio is partly measuring location rather than tenure.
What is leasehold value as a percentage of freehold value in Singapore?: In the core central region, leasehold resales sold at 90 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,976 psf against $2,186 psf. In the rest of central region, leasehold resales sold at 109 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,837 psf against $1,683 psf. In the outside central region, leasehold resales sold at 91 per cent of the freehold price per square foot — $1,348 psf against $1,479 psf. These are medians of resales only, measured on floor area, and not adjusted for how much lease the leasehold side has left.
Why does freehold sometimes look cheaper than leasehold?: Because almost everything built in Singapore this century is 99-year leasehold, so a comparison across all sales puts new launches on the leasehold side. A new sale ran a median $2,387 psf against $1,544 psf for a resale. Across every sale, freehold reads cheaper than leasehold in two of the three regions. That measures how new a flat is, wearing a tenure label.
Is a 999-year lease as good as freehold in Singapore?: Close enough that this site counts 999-year leases on the freehold side of the premium. On its own, across all sales, the 999-year bucket ran $1,787 psf over 2,380 sales against $1,969 psf for freehold and $1,802 psf for leasehold. Those are pooled figures across regions and sale types, so the gap between them is not a clean tenure finding either — there are too few 999-year sales to split three ways.
Which Singapore district has the biggest freehold premium?: D26, where freehold resales ran 32 per cent dearer than leasehold ones across 199 freehold and 220 leasehold sales. At the other end, D14 reads 19 per cent cheaper. 12 of the 23 districts with enough trade to compare show freehold selling below leasehold on resales — which is why a single national premium should not be quoted.

Citing this. Figures on this page were computed on Oct 2026 from 131,264 URA caveats covering Oct 2021 to Oct 2026, and are recomputed as the archive grows, so quote the date you read them. Permanent link: https://www.dailystudysg.com/freehold-premium.