Last verified: 19 Jul 2026. Definitions for general understanding; not financial, tax or legal advice. Rates change — see each market's playbook for current figures.
In one line: The acronyms and terms you'll meet buying property in Singapore, the UK and Malaysia — plain-English definitions, grouped by market, kept current.
Singapore
- ABSD (Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty) — a stamp duty on residential purchases that rises with how many properties you own and your residency; citizens pay 0% on a first home, 20% on a second.
- BSD (Buyer's Stamp Duty) — the base stamp duty every buyer pays, on a tiered scale up to 6%.
- SSD (Seller's Stamp Duty) — a duty on selling residential property within four years of buying (for purchases from 4 Jul 2025).
- TDSR (Total Debt Servicing Ratio) — caps total monthly debt at 55% of gross income.
- MSR (Mortgage Servicing Ratio) — caps the home-loan repayment at 30% of income, for HDB flats and ECs from a developer.
- LTV (Loan-to-Value) — the share of price a bank will lend: up to 75% on a first loan, 45% on a second.
- TOP (Temporary Occupation Permit) — the point a new building is ready to occupy, ahead of the CSC.
- CSC (Certificate of Statutory Completion) — final certification that a development is fully complete.
- OTP (Option to Purchase) — the document (with a fee) that reserves a property for a buyer.
- Decoupling — one co-owner buying out the other's share so that partner can buy again as a first-time buyer (see the Singapore Playbook for costs and risks).
- EC (Executive Condominium) — a hybrid public-private condo with initial eligibility rules that privatises after ten years.
- HDB / BTO / MOP — public housing; Build-To-Order new flats; the Minimum Occupation Period you must live in one before selling.
- En bloc — a collective sale of a whole development to a single buyer, usually a developer.
- URA / CEA — the Urban Redevelopment Authority (planning); the Council for Estate Agencies (agent regulation).
- Leasehold (99-yr) vs freehold — a time-limited tenure (commonly 99 years) versus indefinite ownership.
United Kingdom
- SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax) — the purchase tax on property in England & Northern Ireland (Scotland and Wales differ).
- Additional-dwelling surcharge — +5% SDLT if you already own a home anywhere in the world.
- Non-resident surcharge — +2% SDLT for buyers not UK-resident in the 12 months before purchase.
- Freehold vs leasehold — owning the property and land outright, versus a time-limited lease (most flats), with ground rent and service charges.
- Ground rent — an annual charge a leaseholder pays the freeholder; onerous "doubling" terms are a red flag.
- Service charge — the annual cost toward a building's shared upkeep; on new-builds it can be substantial and rising.
- NRLS (Non-Resident Landlord Scheme) — rules under which a letting agent withholds 20% tax on an overseas landlord's rent unless approved to receive it gross.
- Non-resident CGT — UK Capital Gains Tax (18%/24%) that non-residents pay on selling UK residential property.
- Exchange & completion — exchanging contracts (paying the deposit, becoming committed) then completing (paying the balance, taking the keys).
- Off-plan — buying before construction is finished, against a future completion.
- Snagging — listing defects for the developer to fix on a new-build handover.
- BTL (Buy-to-Let) — property bought to rent out; has its own mortgage products.
- EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) — a required energy rating that can affect lettability.
- Share of freehold / commonhold — arrangements where flat owners collectively own the freehold or hold units without a landlord.
- HMO (House in Multiple Occupation) — a property let room-by-room to unrelated tenants; needs licensing.
Malaysia
- MOT (Memorandum of Transfer) — the instrument transferring title; foreigners pay a flat 8% stamp duty on it from 1 Jan 2026.
- RPGT (Real Property Gains Tax) — tax on gains when selling; 30% within 5 years, 10% after, for foreigners.
- State consent — the written State Authority approval a foreigner needs to buy (National Land Code s.433B).
- Foreign minimum price — the price floor foreigners must meet (commonly RM1,000,000; varies by state).
- Strata vs master title — individual title to a unit in a shared building, versus the umbrella title for the whole development.
- Bumiputera lot / Malay Reserved land — units or land foreigners generally cannot buy.
- SPA (Sale & Purchase Agreement) — the main contract of sale.
- HDA account — the statutory account developers use for staged off-plan payments.
- MM2H (Malaysia My Second Home) — a long-stay visa (not required to buy property).
Yields, costs & the Crestbrick model
- Gross yield — annual rent ÷ price, before any costs. A marketing number, not what you keep.
- Net yield — rent after service charge, ground rent, management, voids and tax ÷ price. The number that matters.
- Cash-on-cash return — annual net cashflow ÷ the actual cash you put in (deposit + costs).
- Void — a period with no tenant (and no rent); always budget for some.
- Capital growth — the change in the property's value over time, separate from rental income.
- All-in cost — the true cash to complete: price plus stamp duties, legal, furnishing and buffer.
- Homevestor Criteria — Crestbrick's scored framework (location, tenure, developer, exit liquidity, yield durability, cost) applied to every deal.
- CrestCARE — Crestbrick's post-purchase support, from reservation through completion and first tenancy.
- Pod (Pre-Bulk / Pre-Select / Pre-Access) — pooling investor demand to negotiate access and pricing: committing volume early, hand-picking units, then giving pod members first allocation.
Financing & mortgages
- Loan-to-value (LTV) — the share of price a lender will finance; the rest is your deposit.
- Interest-only vs repayment — paying only interest each month (balance unchanged) vs interest + principal (balance falls).
- Fixed vs floating rate — a rate locked for a period versus one that moves with a benchmark.
- SORA — the Singapore Overnight Rate Average, the benchmark most SG home loans now price off.
- In-principle approval (IPA) — a lender's conditional indication of how much you can borrow, before you commit.
- Interest coverage ratio (ICR) — a UK buy-to-let stress test: projected rent must cover the mortgage by a set margin.
- Arrangement / booking fee — a lender's set-up fee, often around 0.5–1% of the loan.
- Early repayment charge (ERC) — a penalty for repaying or refinancing a fixed-rate loan early.
- Refinancing — replacing an existing loan with a new one, usually for a better rate.
- Consent to let — a residential lender's permission to rent out a home bought on an owner-occupier loan.
Buying & letting process
- Reservation fee — an upfront sum to take a unit off the market while paperwork proceeds.
- Due diligence — the checks (title, developer, building safety, comparables) done before committing.
- Comparables ("comps") — recent sales or rentals of similar units, used to judge price and rent.
- Completion statement — the final account of monies due at completion.
- Managing agent — the firm running a building's common areas and services, funded by the service charge.
- Letting agent — the firm that finds tenants and manages a rental, typically 8–12% of rent.
- Tenancy agreement — the landlord–tenant contract (in England & Wales, usually an Assured Shorthold Tenancy).
- Gazumping / gazundering — (UK) a seller taking a higher late offer / a buyer cutting their offer before exchange.
- Chain — (UK) linked sales that must complete together; one broken link stalls them all.
Singapore — more
- CPF (in property) — Central Provident Fund savings usable for property, subject to rules and an accrued-interest refund on sale.
- Cash-over-valuation (COV) — cash a buyer pays above a property's valuation (mainly HDB resale).
- Remaining lease — the years left on a leasehold; short leases hurt value and financing.
- Minimum cash downpayment — the portion of a purchase that must be paid in cash, not CPF or loan.
- Caveat — a legal notice lodged to register an interest in a property; lodged caveats signal transactions.
United Kingdom — more
- Land Registry — the official register of UK property ownership and title.
- Peppercorn ground rent — a nominal (effectively zero) ground rent — the opposite of an onerous one.
- Marriage value — the value uplift from extending a short lease, historically shared with the freeholder (being reformed).
- Assured Shorthold Tenancy (AST) — the standard England & Wales residential letting contract.
- Section 24 — the UK rule restricting individual landlords' mortgage-interest relief to a 20% credit.
Malaysia — more
- Quit rent (cukai tanah) — an annual state land tax on Malaysian property.
- Assessment tax (cukai pintu) — a local-council property tax, usually billed twice a year.
- Differential sum — the cash difference between price and loan, paid progressively on off-plan purchases.
- DIBS (Developer Interest-Bearing Scheme) — a since-restricted scheme where developers absorbed interest during construction.
- Sinking fund — reserves collected from owners for a strata building's major future works.
FAQ (schema-ready — mark up as FAQPage)
Q: What is ABSD in Singapore? A: Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty — a residential stamp duty that increases with the number of properties you own and your residency status; a citizen pays 0% on a first home and 20% on a second.
Q: What is the difference between gross and net yield? A: Gross yield is rent divided by price before costs; net yield deducts service charge, ground rent, management, voids and tax first — net is what an investor actually keeps.
Q: Do foreigners pay more stamp duty in Malaysia? A: Yes — from 1 January 2026, foreign buyers pay a flat 8% transfer (MOT) stamp duty, versus the tiered 1–4% scale citizens pay.
Standard note
Definitions are for general understanding and simplified; rules and rates change and vary by case. Nothing here is financial, tax or legal advice — see each market's playbook for current, sourced figures, and take independent advice. Crestbrick — CEA Licence No. L3010886H. Last verified: 19 Jul 2026.