A 678 sq ft three-room flat at Block 95 SkyParc @ Dawson in Queenstown sold for S$900,000 in May 2026, a record S$1,327 psf for three-room flats in the town (Stacked Homes, May 2026). The unit, between the 31st and 33rd floors, beat the previous S$890,000 record set in the same block in January 2026.
The headline is the price. The part that catches buyers off guard is how much of it cannot be borrowed.
The cash you cannot finance
When you buy a resale HDB flat, your loan is sized against the lower of the purchase price and HDB's assessed valuation, not the price you agreed to pay. The gap between the two is Cash Over Valuation (COV), and it must be paid entirely in cash. No loan, no CPF.
This is the trap of a hot estate. When a block keeps setting records, sellers price above what HDB will value the flat at. The more the price outruns the valuation, the larger the slice you front in cash.
Putting numbers on the Queenstown flat
Suppose HDB assesses that S$900,000 flat at S$830,000, and the buyer agreed to S$900,000. The S$70,000 difference is COV, payable in cash on top of everything else.
Now layer on the rest. Under the current HDB loan limit of 75% LTV, the loan is sized against the S$830,000 valuation, giving a loan of S$622,500. The downpayment is 25% of the valuation, S$207,500, payable in cash or CPF.
So before any furniture or renovation, the cash-and-CPF outlay looks like this:
- Downpayment (25% of valuation): S$207,500, cash or CPF
- COV: S$70,000, cash only
- Buyer's Stamp Duty (BSD): S$21,600, cash or CPF
- Legal fees: around S$2,500 to S$3,000
BSD here is calculated on the S$900,000 purchase price, not the valuation, because IRAS charges duty on the higher of price or market value. At S$900,000 the BSD works out to S$21,600 under the current tiered rates (IRAS, 2026).
The valuation is a worked assumption to show the mechanics. HDB's actual assessed value for this specific flat is not public.
Why the cash-only part matters most
The downpayment, BSD and legal fees can often be paid from CPF Ordinary Account savings. COV cannot. It is the one line that has to come from money sitting in your bank.
That is the planning point. Two buyers can agree the same S$900,000 price and face very different cash situations depending on how the flat is valued. A buyer whose flat values at S$900,000 pays zero COV. A buyer whose identical flat values at S$820,000 fronts S$80,000 in cash they cannot replace with CPF or a larger loan.
You usually will not know the valuation until after you have been granted an Option to Purchase and requested the valuation from HDB. By then you are committed to a price. This is why budgeting for a plausible COV before you make an offer, rather than after, is the difference between a stretch and a shortfall.
What this means if you are shopping in a record-setting estate
Queenstown, with its mature location and ongoing redevelopment, is exactly the kind of estate where above-valuation pricing persists. The same dynamic shows up in any town where demand keeps outrunning supply.
Three things follow.
First, your loan does not grow with the price. It is capped by valuation, so a higher agreed price almost always means more cash from you, not more borrowing.
Second, build a COV buffer into your numbers before you view flats. If comparable units in the block are transacting above valuation, assume yours will too, and check that the cash is actually available.
Third, the loan decision still matters, just for a different reason. The mortgage covers the borrowable portion, and the rate you secure on that portion shapes your monthly repayment for years. Getting the financing right does not reduce your COV, but it determines how comfortably you carry the rest.
The record price is the story everyone reads. The cash you cannot borrow is the one that decides whether you can actually buy.
Sarah Chen
