Make your next property decision with evidence.

For most upgraders, sell first. Knowing your exact budget and avoiding the ABSD outlay usually outweighs the convenience of moving only once. Buy first only if you can comfortably front the ABSD for later remission, carry two mortgages through the bridge, and accept that your flat may sell slower than planned.

There is no single magic income. The bank's maximum loan is a regulatory ceiling; comfortable is the repayment your monthly surplus supports with a real buffer left over, stress-tested against higher rates. Work out first whether your budget is limited by income or by the cash and CPF you need upfront, because for many households cash is the binding constraint rather than salary.

MOP is the earliest date you may sell, not a deadline. Waiting builds equity, savings and clarity, but it also shortens the maximum loan tenure available to you and grows the CPF accrued-interest refund due when you eventually sell. The right test is readiness rather than the calendar.

When your flat sells, the proceeds must refund every CPF dollar you used for it, plus the interest that money would have earned had it stayed in your Ordinary Account. It is not a penalty and not lost money: it returns to your own CPF and can fund the next purchase. But it is not cash, and cash is what the next purchase demands first.