CU4 Paper 2

CU4: Property Transactions

Last reviewed 12 October 2026

Competency Unit 4 is the second half of Paper 2 and the most practical part of the RES syllabus. Nine units take each kind of transaction in turn — developer sales, private resale, collective sale, HDB resale, the two leasing regimes, foreign worker housing — then supply the taxes and the finance that run through all of them.

Key points

CU4’s official syllabus title is Property Transactions; it is examined in Paper 2 with CU3.
Nine units: seven transaction types plus the taxes on property and property finance.
Paper 2 is 2.5 hours and 100 marks, with a pass mark of 60, subject to review by CEA (as at October 2026).
Two question types dominate: the sequence or threshold question, and the computation.
CU4 supplies most of Paper 2’s case-study arithmetic, so the calculations must be reliable under time pressure, not merely understood.
Unit 4.9 is the prerequisite for the rest — do the calculations first, with a calculator.
Unit 4.8’s stamp duties overlap with Unit 1.2 in Paper 1, and Unit 4.4 overlaps with Units 3.7 and 4.6 — revise each overlap once.
Keep volatile figures on a dated sheet; policy changes announced or implemented within one month before the examination are not tested.

What Competency Unit 4 covers

The syllabus titles this competency unit Property Transactions. Where CU2 explains the law that makes a transaction work, CU4 walks through the transactions as they are actually done in Singapore: who may buy and sell, in what order the steps happen, which document is signed at each stage, which deadlines bite, and which regulator is watching.

Seven of the nine units are transaction types: the sale of uncompleted and of completed private property, the collective sale of a strata development, the resale of an HDB flat, the leasing of private property, renting out HDB flats and bedrooms, and the housing of foreign employees. The last two are cross-cutting — Unit 4.8 collects the taxes on property, and Unit 4.9 the finance.

How CU4 is examined

CU4 is examined in Paper 2 alongside CU3. The paper runs two and a half hours for 100 marks — 60 one-mark questions in Section A, 20 two-mark questions on one or two case studies in Section B — with a pass mark of 60, subject to review by CEA (as at October 2026).

Two question types dominate. The sequence or threshold question gives a short fact pattern with dates and figures and asks which step was taken out of order or which limit was breached. The computation asks for the figure itself: the stamp duty through its bands, the maximum loan from a loan-to-value limit, or what a seller receives after the CPF refund. This is where Section B concentrates, and because a case study’s facts are shared a single misread figure propagates. Policy changes announced or implemented within one month before the examination date are not tested.

Private property transactions: Units 4.1 to 4.3

Unit 4.1, sale of uncompleted private properties, is about buying a unit that does not yet exist. Because the buyer pays while the building goes up, the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act and the rules under it prescribe the licence, the project account, the option, the sale and purchase agreement and the payment schedule — and most of the marks come from those figures and periods.

Unit 4.2, sale of completed private properties, is the ordinary resale from one owner to the next. There is no licensing regime and no prescribed form, so the contract is whatever the parties sign — in practice an option to purchase incorporating the Law Society’s standard conditions of sale.

Unit 4.3, collective sale of private properties, lets the owners of a strata development sell the whole site even though not every owner agrees. It is procedural and the examiner tests the numbers: what percentage of consent, measured how, within what time, and what happens at the Strata Titles Boards when an owner objects.

HDB, leasing and worker housing: Units 4.4 to 4.7

Unit 4.4, sale of HDB flats, covers the resale of a flat in the open market, and almost nothing in it is negotiable: HDB fixes the option fee limits, the option period, the sequence of steps and the eligibility of both sides. The exam gives a fact pattern with figures and dates and asks which breaches a rule.

Unit 4.5, leasing of private properties, runs from the letter of intent to handover: the documents, the minimum rental period and the occupancy cap, the arithmetic of lease stamp duty and who pays it, and the salesperson’s verification duties before a tenancy is signed.

Unit 4.6, renting out HDB flats and bedrooms, is HDB’s own regime and is examined with unusual precision. Nearly every question turns on one of a handful of numbers, or on the sharp distinction between renting out a whole flat and renting out bedrooms.

Unit 4.7, foreign worker housing, deals with where foreign employees may lawfully be housed and who answers when they are not: the dormitory licensing thresholds, the acceptable housing types, and the occupancy caps when workers are housed in flats or condominiums.

The numbers: Units 4.8 and 4.9

Unit 4.8, taxes on property, is the most figure-heavy unit in Paper 2. You compute property tax from an annual value, work buyer’s stamp duty through its bands, apply the correct additional buyer’s stamp duty rate to a joint purchase, decide whether seller’s stamp duty bites, and say when GST applies. The rates move, so every figure should carry the date it was in force.

Unit 4.9, property finance and financial calculations, is the calculation unit: a maximum loan from a loan-to-value limit, the minimum cash downpayment, the headroom under the total debt servicing and mortgage servicing ratios, cash over valuation, how much CPF may be used, and what a seller walks away with after the CPF refund. The rules come from MAS, HDB and CPF, and questions often need two of them at once.

What to study first in CU4

Do Unit 4.9 first, and do it with a calculator rather than a highlighter. Every other unit eventually asks for a figure, and the loan-to-value limits, the debt servicing ratios and the CPF rules are the arithmetic Section B is built on. Unit 4.8 follows immediately, and it overlaps directly with Unit 1.2 in Paper 1 — learn the rates once and use them in both papers.

Then take Unit 4.4, revised alongside Units 3.7 and 4.6, since the HDB eligibility, minimum occupation period and renting-out rules interlock. Read Units 4.1 and 4.2 as a pair, so the prescribed developer regime stands out against the unregulated resale. Unit 4.5 is easier after Unit 2.3, and Units 4.3 and 4.7 are self-contained lists of thresholds, better memorised close to the examination.

Keep the volatile figures on a separate dated sheet and refresh it in the final fortnight; the procedural sequences change rarely and are worth writing out by hand once for each transaction type.

Terms to know

Cash over valuation: The amount by which a price exceeds the property’s valuation; it must be paid in cash, and both the loan and CPF limits are calculated off the lower figure.
Minimum occupation period: The period an HDB flat owner must physically occupy the flat before it may be sold on the open market or, for some flats, rented out as a whole.
Total debt servicing ratio: A cap set by MAS on a borrower’s total monthly debt obligations as a proportion of gross monthly income, computed at a prescribed stress-test rate.
Collective sale: The sale of an entire strata development to one buyer on the consent of a statutory majority of owners, with the minority protected through the Strata Titles Boards.

Frequently asked questions

Which paper is CU4 examined in?

Paper 2, together with CU3. Paper 1 examines CU1 and CU2. The two papers are identical in structure and are graded separately, each against a pass mark of 60.

How much calculation is there in CU4?

Enough that it has to be practised rather than read. Units 4.8 and 4.9 are built on computation — stamp duty through bands, property tax from annual value, loan quantum from a loan-to-value limit, debt servicing headroom, CPF usage and refunds — and the transaction units add figures of their own, such as lease stamp duty and the developer payment schedule.

Which CU4 unit is hardest?

Most candidates find Unit 4.9 the hardest, because its answers come from three separate rulebooks — MAS, HDB and CPF — and a question often needs two of them at once. It is also the most improvable unit in the syllabus, since the method is fixed and repetition makes it automatic.

Do I need to memorise the current stamp duty and loan rates?

You need to be able to apply them, which in practice means knowing them. The sensible approach is to keep the volatile figures on a separate dated sheet and refresh it shortly before your sitting, because rates and limits are revised from time to time and the version in force on your examination date is the examinable one.

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