The NRI guide to Singapore property

There is no India desk at IRAS. An NRI buying Singapore residential property is a “foreigner” for stamp duty and pays the foreigner rate of Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty. That rate doubled from 30% to 60% with effect from 27 April 2023 under the joint Ministry of Finance, Ministry of National Development and Monetary Authority of Singapore measures, and stands at 60% as at 2 August 2026.

IRAS grants ABSD remission to a closed list of nationalities under the free trade agreements: nationals and permanent residents of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and nationals of the United States only. India is not on it. Neither is China, Malaysia, the United Kingdom or Australia. The relief comes through the Stamp Duties (Free Trade Agreements) (Remission of ABSD) Rules 2013, deemed to have come into operation on 12 January 2013, and the list has not changed since.

One question is worth asking at intake anyway. An NRI who also holds US nationality, or the nationality or permanent residence of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland, is a “qualifying foreigner” and is taxed as a Singapore Citizen would be — 0% on a first residential property. On a S$3 million purchase that is S$1.8 million. Note the asymmetry in the US limb: US permanent residents do not qualify, only US nationals.

Two further IRAS rules bite on family purchases. Where parties of different profiles acquire jointly, the highest applicable ABSD rate applies to the entire purchase price, so buying with a Singapore Citizen spouse does not blend the rate — 60% falls on the whole consideration. ABSD is computed on the higher of price or market value. Buying through a company is worse: an entity pays 65%.

Ownership is governed by the Residential Property Act 1976, administered by the Controller of Residential Property and the Land Dealings Approval Unit at the Singapore Land Authority. A “foreign person” is defined negatively: anyone who is not a Singapore citizen, company, limited liability partnership or society.

SLA requires no approval for a condominium unit, a flat unit, a strata landed house within an approved condominium development, industrial or commercial property, or a leasehold of landed residential property not exceeding 7 years including any renewal option. Approval is required for restricted residential property: vacant residential land, terrace houses, semi-detached houses, bungalows, strata landed houses outside an approved condominium development, and landed property at Sentosa Cove.

For mainland landed property the LDAU assesses each case, taking into account that the applicant should be a Singapore permanent resident for at least five years and must make exceptional economic contribution to Singapore, assessed with reference to factors such as employment income assessable for tax in Singapore. Approval carries an owner-occupation condition — rental, including of part of the property, is strictly prohibited — and a 5-year non-disposal condition. Contravention is an offence under section 25C.

An NRI who is not a Singapore PR cannot buy an HDB flat or a new Executive Condominium. Per HDB, a resale EC opens to foreigners only 10 years from Temporary Occupation Permit, or 15 years where the land tender closed on or after 8 May 2026.

On financing, MAS applies the same limits regardless of nationality. Where the Option to Purchase is granted on or after 6 July 2018: 75% loan-to-value with no outstanding housing loan, 45% with one, 35% with two or more, the lower figure in each pair (55%, 25%, 15%) applying where the tenure exceeds 30 years or runs past age 65. Total debt servicing ratio is capped at 55% of gross monthly income, tightened from 60% on 16 December 2021.

Everything on the India side turns on which account the funds sit in. The three accounts available to an NRI are governed by the Foreign Exchange Management (Deposit) Regulations, 2016, and the Reserve Bank of India sets out the differences in its “Accounts in India by Non-residents” FAQ. The repatriability row decides whether a purchase is workable.

An NRI therefore funds a purchase from one of three places: money already held offshore, which engages no Indian quota at all; NRE or FCNR(B) balances, freely repatriable; or NRO balances, within the USD 1 million window below. Only the third generates paperwork.

The USD 250,000 figure appears in almost every article written for Indian buyers of overseas property. It is the wrong number for an NRI. The Reserve Bank of India states that the Liberalised Remittance Scheme limit is USD 250,000 per financial year (April to March) per resident individual, for any permissible current or capital account transaction. RBI is equally clear about who may use it: the Scheme is available to “all resident individuals, including minors”, and is not available to corporates, partnership firms, HUFs or trusts.

An NRI is not a person resident in India under FEMA, and so is not a resident individual for LRS purposes. RBI states the positive limb rather than the negative one, so put it this way: LRS is confined to resident individuals; an NRI is outside it and remits from NRE, FCNR(B) or NRO balances instead. That is a reasoned position drawn from RBI’s wording plus the FEMA residence definition — confirm it with your chartered accountant against your own residential status for the year.

The distinction matters in one common family scenario. A parent resident in India, funding a child’s Singapore purchase, is using LRS, and is subject to both the USD 250,000 ceiling and the tax collected at source described below. RBI confirms that a resident individual may remit under LRS to purchase immovable property outside India, and that once USD 250,000 has been remitted in a financial year no further LRS remittance is permitted that year.

Where the money is Indian-source — rent, dividends, or the proceeds of selling an Indian property — it sits in an NRO account and is capped. Under the Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, 2016, RBI permits remittance of up to USD 1 million per financial year (April to March) out of NRO balances, aggregated with the NRI’s other eligible assets, “for all bona fide purposes, to the satisfaction of the Authorised Dealer bank”. It also covers a transfer into an NRE account within the same ceiling, “subject to payment of tax, as applicable”.

The documentation is where files stall. RBI requires the authorised dealer bank to see documentary evidence of the acquisition, inheritance or legacy of the assets, plus “an undertaking by the remitter and certificate by a Chartered Accountant in the formats prescribed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes”.

The Income Tax Department’s Form 145 user manual sets out four parts. Part A covers a taxable remittance not exceeding ₹5,00,000 in the tax year. Part B covers a taxable remittance above that supported by an Assessing Officer’s certificate under section 395. Part C covers one above that supported by a certificate in Form No. 146 from an accountant. Part D covers a remittance not taxable under the Act. Under the legacy Rule 37BB position, Form 15CB was likewise required only above ₹5 lakh in a financial year.

1. 01Settle the Indian tax position on the underlying asset

   Capital gains, tax deducted at source by the Indian buyer, and any lower-deduction certificate.

2. 02Instruct a chartered accountant to issue the certificate

   Form 146 for remittances from 1 April 2026, formerly Form 15CB. The accountant certifies taxability and the tax withheld.

3. 03File the remitter’s form

   Form 145, formerly Form 15CA, before the remittance. Pick the part matching the amount and whether a certificate was obtained.

4. 04Give the bank its FEMA pack

   Evidence of how the asset was acquired, the remitter’s undertaking, and the CA certificate in the CBDT format.

5. 05Remit within the annual window

   The USD 1 million ceiling runs on the Indian financial year and aggregates with other eligible assets remitted that year.

6. 06Convert and hold in Singapore before you commit

   Currency movement between Indian clearance and Singapore completion is the buyer’s risk. The option period will not wait.

Tax collected at source is a cash-flow item, not a final tax — it is creditable against the remitter’s Indian income tax liability. It still has to be funded on the day. From 1 April 2026 the governing provision is section 394(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaces section 206C(1G) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. On a remittance under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme of an amount, or aggregate of amounts, exceeding ₹10 lakh, the rate is 2% for purposes of education or medical treatment — reduced from 5% — and 20% for purposes other than education or medical treatment, unchanged. The Memorandum Explaining the Provisions of the Finance Bill, 2026 states that the amendment takes effect from 1 April 2026.

The ₹10 lakh threshold was raised from ₹7 lakh by the Finance Act 2025 with effect from 1 April 2025 and survives into FY 2026-27. It is a combined limit per PAN across all categories of LRS remittance, all payment modes and all authorised dealers.

The corollary catches families. An India-resident parent remitting S$400,000 towards a child’s Singapore condominium is using LRS, and above ₹10 lakh that remittance carries 20% tax collected at source, because buying property is neither education nor medical treatment. It is recoverable through the Indian return, but the cash must be found first.

The Agreement between India and Singapore for the Avoidance of Double Taxation entered into force on 27 May 1994, and has since been amended by protocols and modified by the Multilateral Instrument. IRAS publishes the synthesised text.

Rent: Article 6

Article 6(3) extends this to income from the direct use, letting, or use in any other form of immovable property. Rent from a Singapore condominium is taxable in Singapore. IRAS taxes a non-resident individual at 24% from Year of Assessment 2024 on all income including rent, up from 22%.

Gains: Article 13

Article 13(1) allocates gains from the alienation of immovable property to the State where it is situated. Article 13(3) does the same for gains on shares in a company whose property consists principally, directly or indirectly, of immovable property in that State — holding through a company does not move the situs.

“May be taxed” is a permissive allocation, not a charge. Singapore has no capital gains tax. A gain on a Singapore residential property held as a capital investment is therefore not taxed in Singapore, though Seller’s Stamp Duty may apply and gains from a trade of property dealing are taxable as income.

The credit: Article 25(2)

Where a resident of India derives income which, in accordance with the Agreement, may be taxed in Singapore, India allows as a deduction from that resident’s tax an amount equal to the Singapore tax paid, capped at the part of the Indian tax attributable to that income. That is an ordinary credit, not an exemption: if the Indian rate on that slice is below 24%, the excess Singapore tax is lost. And because Singapore does not tax the gain, there is usually nothing to credit on disposal — what happens to the gain in India turns on residential status for the year of sale.

The figures below are an illustration, not a forecast. Price, rent, annual value and outgoings are assumptions; the tax rates are the published rates.

Two Singapore charges do the damage. First, property tax: IRAS taxes residential property on its annual value, and the non-owner-occupier rates effective 1 January 2024 run 12% on the first $30,000 of annual value, 20% on the next $15,000, 28% on the next $15,000 and 36% above $60,000. A let property never gets the owner-occupier rates. Second, income tax at the non-resident rate of 24%, against which an individual letting residential property may claim deemed rental expenses of 15% of gross rent, plus mortgage interest, instead of actual expenses.

The last two lines are the honest ones. Yield against price is what gets marketed. Yield against total entry cost is what a 60% ABSD payer actually earns, and on these assumptions it is roughly a third lower. Note too that the 15% deemed expense option replaces actual expenses other than mortgage interest: property tax and maintenance are still real cash, simply not separately deducted once the deemed basis is chosen.

On exit, Singapore takes no capital gains tax but Seller’s Stamp Duty applies. For residential property acquired on or after 4 July 2025, IRAS charges 16% within one year, 12% between one and two, 8% between two and three, 4% between three and four, and nothing after four years. The schedule is fixed by when the property was acquired, not when it is sold.