When a married couple divorces, the HDB flat is usually the biggest thing they own together, and the hardest to divide. The court decides how its value is split. HDB's rules decide what can actually be done with it: sell it, let one of you keep it, or hand it back.
Roov has set out the full rules, with every official source, in our guide to divorce and your HDB flat. Here is the short version, and what it looks like in dollars.
First, two dates
• The Minimum Occupation Period. The flat can be sold on the open market only if it has met its MOP by the date of the Final Judgment. That is five years for most flats and ten for Plus and Prime flats. • The Interim Judgment. HDB acts on the flat after it, once the division of assets and the care and control of any children are settled. The Final Judgment comes at least three months later, and must be in hand by the time the sale or transfer completes.
Then, who can keep it
• A parent with custody, care and control of the children can keep the flat with them, if they meet HDB's usual eligibility rules. • Without children, only a Singapore citizen aged 35 or over on the date of the Final Judgment can keep it, under the single citizen scheme. A Plus or Prime flat can only be kept by someone who meets HDB's criteria for singles. • Whoever keeps it must be able to finance it alone. HDB does not lend for the sum paid to the ex-spouse, and banks generally lend for it only when it is done as a resale of part-share. The affordability calculator shows what one income can carry at the stress-test rate.
If the MOP has not been met and neither of you can keep the flat, it goes back to HDB, at a compensation amount HDB decides. HDB publishes no formula for it, so ask for the figure early.
What selling actually leaves you
The sale price is not what you split. The outstanding loan comes off first, then each of you gets back the CPF you used plus the interest it would have earned, then the costs of selling. Only the remainder is divided under the court order.
For a sense of scale: in Roov's records of HDB resales over the 12 months to October, 4-room flats on leases that began between 2016 and 2021, the flats now around or just past their MOP, sold for a median of $715,000 across 2,648 sales.
Take a couple who sell one at that price with $150,000 still owing on the loan. Between them they used $200,000 of CPF, which with six years of interest at the Ordinary Account rate could come to about $230,000 to refund. After roughly $10,000 of selling costs, about $325,000 is left to divide. That is less than half the price, and it is the number the settlement should be written around.
Roov's HDB sale proceeds tool works this out for your own flat, with the refund for each owner shown separately. If you are weighing whether now is a good time to sell, our look at HDB resale prices against private shows where the market stands.
If one of you keeps it
The CPF works differently. On a transfer, the court can order a full, partial or no CPF refund to the spouse who leaves, and anything less than full needs the CPF Board's consent. The money is not forgiven. Whoever keeps the flat must refund it, with interest, into their own CPF account when they eventually sell.
A buy-out done as a resale of part-share needs the refund in full. HDB also treats it like any other resale, which can start a fresh MOP. HDB told Parliament in April 2025 that it waives this for most divorce cases, but check before you plan your next move: a fresh MOP blocks selling, renting out the whole flat and buying private property until it has run.
Where the children come in
The Women's Charter lists the needs of the children among the things the court must weigh when it divides the assets, alongside each spouse's financial contributions and their contributions to the family. HDB's rules then decide what that division can look like. The parent with care and control can keep the flat as a family, while a childless ex-spouse under 35 cannot keep it at all. So the care and control order often decides who keeps the home.
If the flat is sold, a divorced parent with children who has applied for a new flat can rent under the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme while waiting. The ASSIST priority scheme also sets aside some 2-room Flexi and 3-room BTO flats for divorced and widowed parents with at least one child aged 18 or below.
Buying again
• If you give up your share of a subsidised flat, you must meet a five-year time bar from when that flat was bought before buying another subsidised flat or a new EC, and you may owe a resale levy on it. • A divorced parent buys as a family with the children in their care. A divorcee without children who buys alone does so as a single from 35, and HDB sells new flats only to first-time singles: if you have had a subsidised flat, buying alone means a resale flat. Buying with a new partner is a different case, which we cover in second-timer BTO after a divorce. • You can apply for the HDB Flat Eligibility letter after the Interim Judgment, once the ancillary matters are settled. Our HDB grants guide covers what you can still claim.
Stamp duty
IRAS can remit Buyer's, Additional Buyer's and Seller's Stamp Duty when a property is transferred to the ex-spouse or the children under a court order dividing matrimonial assets, or because of the divorce. A sale to anyone else gets no such relief. And a divorcee who still co-owns the matrimonial flat and buys private property pays ABSD as an owner of one home already. The stamp duty calculator works out the sum.
So, for you
If you are separating, write the settlement around numbers, not percentages alone: what the flat will sell for, what goes back to CPF, and whether the one who stays can borrow on one salary. Ask HDB, or run MSF's Housing Options Explorer, before the order is drafted, not after. Your lawyer drafts the order; Roov does not give legal advice.
Working out whether to sell the flat or keep it, and what either leaves you to buy next? Roov's agent can run the numbers with you, in confidence. Get in touch.