CPF Accrued Interest & Property Sale Refund Calculator 2026

Statutory Overview & Government Framework

When you use CPF savings to pay for a property, the amount withdrawn reduces the CPF savings that would otherwise have remained in your account and earned interest. When the property is sold or transferred, the normal CPF housing refund is the **principal amount withdrawn plus the accrued interest** that the withdrawn savings would have earned. If you pledged the property to meet your retirement sum, the pledged amount may also have to be refunded. The CPF OA interest floor is **2.5% per annum**, and CPF interest is calculated monthly but credited and compounded annually. The exact property-refund amount is therefore best obtained from CPF Board's **Home Ownership Dashboard > What Happens If** rather than from a generic calculator. The amount refunded is generally credited to the OA for members below 55. For members aged 55 and above, the housing refund is first used to top up the Retirement Account to the applicable Full Retirement Sum, with the balance remaining in the OA. A market-value sale can protect the seller from having to make a cash top-up when sale proceeds after the outstanding loan are insufficient to cover the full CPF refund; a below-market sale can result in a cash top-up requirement.

1. What CPF Accrued Interest Means When You Sell a Property

CPF accrued interest is not a tax, government fee or penalty. It represents the interest that the CPF savings used for your property would have earned had those savings remained in your CPF account. When you use CPF for a down payment, purchase costs or eligible housing loan instalments, those amounts are no longer sitting in the OA earning CPF interest. The housing-refund mechanism restores the principal withdrawn and the corresponding accrued interest when the property is sold or transferred.

The normal refund is therefore expressed as **P + I**, where **P** is the relevant CPF principal amount withdrawn for the property and **I** is the accrued interest. For members aged 55 and above who have used a property pledge to meet their retirement sum, the pledged amount can be an additional component of the housing refund. There is also an important historical exception for certain members who were already age 55 or older before 1 January 2013 and had set aside their FRS before that date.

The refund is not money paid to the Government and disappears from the member's wealth. It is restored to the member's CPF accounts, subject to the account-allocation and retirement rules that apply at the time. What changes is where the money sits and how it can subsequently be used.

2. The 2.5% CPF OA Interest Rate: What the Calculator Can and Cannot Reliably Estimate

CPF Ordinary Account savings currently earn a legislated minimum interest rate of **2.5% per annum**. CPF Board states that CPF interest is **calculated monthly but credited and compounded annually**. This is an important technical correction to the original page, which described the accrued interest as simply '2.5% compounded monthly.' The underlying interest rate is 2.5% p.a., but the CPF accounting mechanism should not be represented as a standard monthly-compounding bank deposit formula.

The exact accrued interest on a property withdrawal depends on the amount withdrawn and when each withdrawal occurred. A lump-sum down payment, a series of monthly housing instalments, stamp duties paid using CPF and other eligible withdrawals can all have different accrual periods. Because each withdrawal starts accruing interest from the relevant deduction date, adding every historical withdrawal together and applying one generic compounding formula can produce a materially different result from CPF Board's actual calculation.

For a public-facing calculator, a simplified estimate should therefore be clearly labelled **illustrative only**. The authoritative number is the amount displayed by CPF Board in the member's Home Ownership Dashboard under **What Happens If**. That figure incorporates the member's actual withdrawal history and applicable CPF rules.

3. What Must Be Refunded: CPF Withdrawals, Housing Grants and Property Pledge

When the property is sold or transferred, CPF Board generally requires the member to refund the **CPF principal amount used plus accrued interest**. CPF housing grants used for the property are part of the CPF amount withdrawn and are therefore also subject to refund together with their accrued interest. Examples include relevant CPF Housing Grants credited to the member's OA and used for the property.

There is an important account-allocation rule for larger housing grants. CPF Board states that where a member has received **more than S$30,000 in housing grants**, part of the refunded grant amount may be credited to the Special Account or Retirement Account and MediSave Account rather than all of it necessarily returning to the OA. The exact allocation can be checked in the member's Home Ownership Dashboard.

For members aged 55 and above, a separate **property pledge** can also affect the final refund. If a property was pledged to make up the Full Retirement Sum, the pledged amount is refunded together with P+I under the applicable rules. It should therefore not be assumed that the final CPF refund is always exactly equal to the P+I figure shown before taking the property pledge into account.

4. Property Sale Proceeds, Market Value and the 'Negative Sale' Protection

After a property is sold, the sale proceeds are first used according to the applicable completion rules, including repayment of the outstanding housing loan. The CPF housing refund is then made from the remaining sale proceeds. A **negative sale** can occur where the amount left after the outstanding loan is insufficient to cover the full CPF housing refund.

CPF Board's current rule provides an important protection where the property is **sold at market value**. If the selling price after the outstanding housing loan is insufficient to cover the required CPF housing refund, the seller generally only needs to refund the amount remaining from the sale proceeds after the outstanding loan. The seller does **not** need to make a cash top-up solely to cover the CPF refund shortfall when the property has been sold at market value, subject to the applicable CPF rules.

The position is different when the property is **sold below market value**. CPF Board states that the seller may need to top up the CPF housing-refund shortfall in cash. This is why the original page's phrase 'valuation cap rule' needs to be expressed as a market-value protection rather than a blanket cap that automatically applies whenever a sale price falls short.

5. What Happens to Your CPF Refund Before and After Age 55

The destination of the housing refund depends strongly on age. If you are **below age 55**, your housing refund is generally credited to your **Ordinary Account (OA)**. The OA refund can then remain in CPF to earn interest or be used for approved CPF purposes, including another property purchase, subject to the applicable housing rules and limits.

If you are **55 or older**, the housing refund is first used to top up your **Retirement Account (RA) to the applicable Full Retirement Sum (FRS)**. Any remaining refund stays in the OA. For 2026, the **Full Retirement Sum is S$220,400**. Therefore, the original statement that refunded money simply returns to the OA or is automatically available as cash after age 55 was incorrect.

After the RA has been topped up to the required retirement sum, the remaining OA balance may be used for approved purposes or, where CPF withdrawal conditions are met, withdrawn in cash. The exact amount available for withdrawal depends on the member's age, CPF balances, property and retirement position. A member should therefore check the CPF Retirement Dashboard rather than assuming that the entire housing refund becomes immediately withdrawable.

6. Can Refunded CPF Be Used for Another Home?

Yes, refunded CPF savings credited to the OA can generally be reused for another property or other approved CPF purposes, subject to the applicable housing withdrawal rules. CPF Board explicitly states that refunded OA housing savings can be used to purchase another property, remain in the OA to earn interest, or be transferred for retirement purposes where the relevant transfer rules are satisfied.

The important limitation is that **'refunded CPF' does not mean 'unrestricted cash'**. If a member is below 55, the refund generally returns to OA and remains subject to CPF housing-use rules. If the member is 55 or above, RA rules apply first. Certain refunded housing grants may also have a different account allocation, and the amount that can actually be used for a new property depends on the member's age, account balances, remaining lease, property type and applicable CPF housing limits.

For a 55-and-above member buying a **3-room or smaller HDB flat**, CPF Board provides a specific route under which RA savings above the Basic Retirement Sum may potentially be used for the new property, provided conditions are met. These include purchasing the new flat within three years after selling the current property, the new flat costing less than the previous property sold for, and not having been issued a CPF LIFE plan where the relevant RA savings are required for CPF LIFE.

7. Voluntary Housing Refund: Reducing Accrued Interest Before You Sell

A **Voluntary Housing Refund (VHR)** allows a homeowner to repay CPF savings previously used for the property before the property is sold. CPF Board states that a member can make a full or partial voluntary refund of an amount up to the principal withdrawn for the property together with accrued interest. The refunded amount is applied first to reduce the principal amount withdrawn and then the accrued interest.

The purpose is not to obtain a tax deduction or bonus. The refund restores CPF savings earlier, so the amount that remains outstanding for the eventual property sale is lower. This can reduce future accrued interest and potentially increase the amount of cash proceeds available after the property is eventually sold.

A VHR can be made online through CPF services using **Singpass and PayNow**, including through the CPF Mobile app. The refund is generally irrevocable. After a successful full voluntary housing refund, continuing CPF housing withdrawals for that property can require a fresh application. A person should therefore understand the cashflow consequences before making a large voluntary refund.

8. Worked Example: Why CPF Accrued Interest Can Change Your Final Cash Proceeds

Consider a simplified illustration in which a homeowner has accumulated **S$300,000 of CPF principal withdrawals** for a property over many years and the CPF Home Ownership Dashboard shows **S$100,000 of accrued interest**. The indicative P+I figure is therefore **S$400,000**. This is not a calculation that should be substituted for CPF Board's actual figure because real housing withdrawals occur at different dates and CPF interest is calculated using the actual monthly withdrawal history.

Suppose the property is sold for **S$900,000** and the outstanding housing loan is **S$350,000**. Before other completion deductions, the amount remaining after the loan is S$550,000. If the CPF housing refund is S$400,000, the remaining amount after the CPF refund would be approximately **S$150,000**, before other applicable deductions such as resale levies, transaction costs or other amounts payable at completion.

Now suppose the same property's market value is much higher but the actual sale produces only **S$320,000 after repayment of the housing loan**. If the property was sold at market value, CPF's negative-sale protection can mean that the seller refunds the available S$320,000 rather than having to find the entire S$400,000 in cash. If the property had instead been sold below market value, a cash top-up could be required. This is why a seller should check both the **CPF refund amount and the property's market-value position** before finalising the sale.

9. The Most Important 2026 CPF Property-Sale Rules to Check Before Signing

Before selling a property that was financed with CPF, the key number is not simply the selling price. You need to know the **outstanding housing loan**, the CPF principal withdrawn, the accrued interest, any housing-grant refund, any property pledge amount, and any other amounts that will be deducted during completion. CPF Board's Home Ownership Dashboard provides the most reliable starting point for the personalised refund figure.

The seller should also distinguish between **CPF refund and cash proceeds**. A refund restores the member's CPF savings, while the remaining cash sale proceeds may be available to the seller after the applicable loan and completion deductions. A high selling price therefore does not automatically mean a high amount of immediately spendable cash.

Statutory Benchmark Metrics