How Buying Works in Singapore

1) You submit a written Offer to Purchase with a cheque. 2) The seller grants you an Option to Purchase (OTP) — you pay the option money. 3) You exercise the OTP within the option period and pay the deposit. 4) Lawyers run conveyancing — legal requisitions, your loan and CPF. 5) Completion, typically 10–12 weeks after exercise — you pay the balance and collect the keys.

Both the Offer to Purchase and the OTP expire at 4.00pm on the stated date (weekend or public holiday rolls to the next working day). Miss it and the offer lapses or your option money is forfeited. Extensions count only in writing — a verbal "no problem, take another day" does not bind anyone.

If the property is sold subject to an existing tenancy, you inherit the lease — the tenant stays until it ends and the rent comes to you. Insist on receiving a copy of the tenancy agreement by the stated deadline before you exercise, and check the rent, the remaining term and the deposit you'll be taking over.

Market standard for private resale is 1% of the price, paid by cheque to the seller when the OTP is granted. HDB is different: the option fee is capped at S$1,000. The standard form does not print a default — whatever number is written in governs, so check it before signing anything.

On exercising you pay a deposit of 5% or 10% of the price less the option money — the form has a delete-one choice. The common structure is 1% option + 4% on exercise (5% total). For HDB, option plus deposit is capped at S$5,000 in total. The option period itself is typically 14 days (private) or 21 calendar days (HDB) — also a blank the parties fill.

The OTP offers three homes for your deposit: 1) the Singapore Academy of Law as stakeholder, 2) the seller's law firm's conveyancing account as stakeholder, or 3) released directly to the seller. Options 1 and 2 hold the money safely until completion. Option 3 hands your cash to the seller immediately — if completion fails you're chasing them for it. Ask for stakeholding.

Don't exercise the OTP and your option money is forfeited to the seller — there is no cooling-off once the option is granted. A bounced cheque is worse: the seller may treat the deal as repudiated, confiscate all monies paid and re-sell, while keeping other legal remedies. Only offer with funds you actually have.

Within 14 days of exercising: Buyer's Stamp Duty, plus ABSD if it applies to your profile — calculate it here. At completion: the rest of your downpayment (cash + CPF, depending on your LTV) and legal fees. The borrowing calculator shows the full upfront figure for your situation.

The sale is conditional on your lawyers receiving satisfactory replies to legal requisitions from government agencies (roads, drainage, building orders and so on). An unsatisfactory reply — for example an outstanding order the seller can't clear before completion — lets you rescind and recover all monies, though without interest. This is a key reason to exercise through a lawyer, not around one.

The OTP deems you to have inspected the property thoroughly — no complaints about condition after signing. It also contains an entire-agreement clause: nothing said verbally by the seller or any agent binds anyone. So: inspect properly, and get every promise — repairs, furniture included, fixtures staying — written into the OTP or the inventory list.

Non-citizens need approval from the SLA Land Dealings Approval Unit to buy landed residential property. The OTP makes the purchase conditional on it: no approval by the completion date → the contract is void and all monies are refunded (without interest). Condos and apartments don't need this approval.

The OTP lets you buy "and/or nominee" — useful when finalising whose name goes on the title (say, for ownership structuring). But who ends up on the title changes the stamp duty outcome, especially ABSD. Decide names before exercising, with advice.

Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty depends on who you are and how many properties you'll own after buying: citizens 0% / 20% / 30%, PRs 5% / 30% / 35%, foreigners 60%. It's payable within 14 days of exercise, largely in cash first. Calculate yours · full rate table.

For HDB resale you need a valid HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter before you can even be granted an OTP. Also in play: the seller must have passed their 5-year MOP, and private-property owners face a 15-month wait-out before buying a resale flat (waived at 55+ buying 4-room or smaller). Details on the HDB Flat Portal.

Commercial/industrial purchases go through an Offer to Purchase with the same 4pm-deadline mechanics — but if the seller is GST-registered, 9% GST applies on top of the price. There's no ABSD on commercial property, and no SSD on offices/retail. Verify the GST position (and whether you can claim it back as a GST-registered buyer) before you set your offer price.

CEA's rules bar a salesperson from collecting commission from both sides of one deal — so the listing agent's duty is to the seller: best price, best terms, for them. Nothing wrong with that; it's their job, done properly. The question worth sitting with: when the OTP blanks are being filled in — option money, deposit holding, completion date — whose interests are in the room? Most buyers don't realise those five blanks are all negotiable until someone negotiates them.

The honest numbers (CEA sets no fixed rates — everything is negotiable): on most private resale purchases, your agent is paid through a co-broke share of the seller's commission — you pay nothing extra. On HDB resale, buyers commonly pay their own agent around 1%. On rentals above roughly S$3,500/month, the landlord's side usually co-brokes too. So for many deals, going alone doesn't save the fee — it just means nobody is pulling the transacted PSF for your street, checking the five blanks against your financing, or sequencing your ABSD. Let's run your numbers together first — that part costs nothing either.

A doctor can't treat you well if you're taking three doctors' prescriptions at once. An exclusive (CEA's own prescribed Form 6 — a regulator template, with a term you control) changes what I can do: negotiate openly with any listing agent, show you every unit that fits regardless of whose listing it is, and be accountable to you alone for the outcome. What you should demand in return — from me or any agent you appoint: transacted data before opinions, the honest trade-offs on every unit including the ones to walk away from, and calls answered. If the work isn't visible, don't renew the form.

The standard forms deliberately leave the economics blank. Before you sign, check: 1) option money amount, 2) whether 5% or 10% deposit is selected, 3) the option period, 4) the completion date, and 5) which deposit-holding tick-box is chosen. "Market standard" protects you only if it's actually written in.

Resale property has no cooling-off period. Once the seller accepts within your offer window and the OTP is granted, backing out costs you the option money (and after exercise, far more). Do the sums, the viewing and the financing checks before the cheque leaves your hands.

1) Appoint your agent under a written CEA estate agency agreement. 2) Market and take viewings. 3) A buyer submits an Offer to Purchase — you accept by the 4pm deadline. 4) You grant the OTP and receive the option money. 5) The buyer exercises; lawyers handle requisitions and paperwork. 6) Completion at your lawyer's office — usually 10–12 weeks later.

To accept, you must deliver both the signed acceptance and the executed OTP by the 4pm expiry (electronic delivery is valid). If you don't accept in time, the buyer's cheque is refunded and the deal is off — extensions bind only if agreed in writing.

A buyer who lets the option lapse forfeits the option money to you. Note: under the CEA-prescribed estate agency agreement, the agency receives half of the forfeited monies or the agreed commission, whichever is lower — the regulator's standard treats an aborted deal as work done. Factor this in when weighing a shaky offer against a solid one.

The standard form irrevocably authorises your lawyers to deduct the agreed commission (plus GST) from the sale proceeds and pay the agency directly on completion. Clean and predictable — just remember your "price" and your "proceeds" are different numbers. See the full waterfall.

Selling within the SSD holding period (up to 4 years for residential bought on/after 4 Jul 2025) costs 4–16% of price — check your holding period. And every CPF dollar used on the home, plus accrued interest, refunds to your CPF on sale. It's still your money, but it's not cash in hand — most sellers overestimate their cash proceeds until they see this line.

You can sell subject to the tenancy — the buyer inherits your tenant, and you must hand over the tenancy agreement copy by the agreed date and transfer the lease (and deposit) properly. Sale viewings are allowed any time by appointment under the standard lease, so a sitting tenant doesn't stop you marketing.

The buyer may rescind if government replies reveal an outstanding notice or order you can't comply with before completion (building orders, unauthorised works and the like). Settle outstanding matters — or price them in — before granting the OTP, not after.

If the developer requires a fresh Sale & Purchase Agreement, you must deliver a deed of assignment, the developer's confirmation of payments made, and a letter of authority crediting your payments to the buyer. The buyer bears the developer's admin fees — but you must keep paying progress instalments that fall due until actual completion.

CEA bars a salesperson from taking commission from both sides of one deal, so a buyer's agent's job is the buyer's best price, best terms. That's fair — it's their client. The question worth asking yourself: when it's time to price, negotiate the five OTP blanks, and read a buyer's real urgency versus a bluff, whose read is in the room for you?

The visible work — photos, portal listings, viewings — is the smallest part. The part that moves your net proceeds: pricing against actual transacted comps (not asking prices), qualifying a buyer's financing before you commit to their offer, and holding the line on the five OTP blanks under pressure to close fast. Ask any agent you're considering to show you the comps before they suggest a number — not after.

Sell-first means certainty on your Firepower but needs interim housing; buy-first means paying ABSD upfront and claiming remission only if the sale completes within the window (married couples). Timelines, bridging and the 75% LTV all interact — run your upgrade numbers, then let's sequence it together.

You can only sell after the 5-year MOP. And if you'll buy a second subsidised flat or EC later, a resale levy (S$15k–S$50k by flat type) bites at that point. Check both before committing to a timeline. Reference table.

You submit a Letter of Intent (LOI) with a good-faith deposit (usually 1 month, cheque to the landlord). The tenancy agreement must then be signed within 7 days. On signing, the good-faith deposit converts into your security deposit — you don't pay twice — and you pay 1 month's advance rental. Total up your move-in costs here.

If the landlord refuses to sign after terms are agreed, your good-faith deposit is refunded immediately (the landlord separately owes the agency its commission — but you get no extra compensation, just your money back). If you back out, the deposit is forfeited. Only place the LOI when you're genuinely ready.

The residential LOI has a blank list (A–F) for your requirements: repaint, deep cleaning, new mattress, aircon chemical wash, extra furniture. Anything not written there is near-impossible to enforce later. Dictate the list before you hand over the cheque.

The tenancy agreement must be e-stamped with IRAS within 14 days of signing; by market practice the tenant pays — 0.4% of the total rent for the lease (e.g. $3,000/month × 24 months → $288). An unstamped lease can't be used as evidence in court — it protects you, so don't skip it. The calculator includes it.

You bear repairs and replacements up to S$___ per item/job (market standard S$150–200); the landlord pays the excess above the cap, but repairs above it need his approval and he can insist on his contractor. The blank appears in several places — make sure the same number is written in all of them, and don't accept an inflated cap. Light bulbs and tubes are always yours.

You must service the aircon at least once every 3 months under a service contract, and send the landlord a copy within 30 days of moving in. Do that, and fair wear-and-tear repairs are the landlord's. Miss it, and you pay the full cost of any breakdown — this is the single most common deposit fight. Keep every receipt.

Rent unpaid 7 days after the due date (whether demanded or not) entitles the landlord to terminate and re-enter. Late interest runs at 10% per annum (the formula is printed in the lease). Set up GIRO — and note you must give the landlord evidence of the GIRO arrangement within 1 month of moving in.

The deposit (market standard: 1 month per year of lease) is refundable within 14 days of the lease ending, less deductions, without interest. The lease expressly bars using it to offset rent — you must pay the final month in full. Your best protection against deductions: a signed inventory list with photos at handover.

Defects you report in writing during the defect-free period (a blank in the form — ask for 30 days) are the landlord's to fix at his cost. Walk the unit in week one, test everything, and email the list. After the window closes, the repair-cap mechanics take over.

The clause is tied to a named person and FIN — if they're transferred out of Singapore, terminated and required to leave, or ordered to leave, you can end the lease early. Market standard: exercisable after 12 months, with 2 months' notice (or rent in lieu). Two catches: the notice only starts running when the landlord receives documentary evidence, and the qualifying months are a blank — get "12" written in, and make sure the named person is your household's actual visa holder.

Exercising the diplomatic clause (or otherwise lawfully ending early) obliges you to reimburse the landlord's agent commission pro-rated over the unfulfilled term — deductible from your deposit. Budget for it when weighing an early exit.

The standard room rental agreement has no diplomatic clause — instead it has blank early-termination fields: ___ months' notice after a minimum stay of ___ months. Left unfilled or filled badly, premature termination means deposit confiscated plus a pro-rated commission reimbursement. Negotiate those two blanks before signing (e.g. 1 month's notice after 3 months), and note the form is silent on stamp duty — stamp it anyway.

Only people listed in the occupier schedule may live in the unit; changes need the landlord's prior written consent and trigger fresh checks. Expect to show original passes/ICs, do a face-to-face or video verification, and give 14 days' written notice of any change in immigration or employment status. If a prohibited immigrant is found on the premises, the lease terminates immediately and the whole deposit is forfeited — this clause is enforced.

Even legally-allowed pets need the landlord's prior written permission. No drilling, hacking or alterations without written consent (you make good at your cost). No subletting or assignment without consent — though for whole units it can't be unreasonably withheld for a reputable person. Get permissions in writing before, not forgiveness after.

Viewings by prospective new tenants are only allowed in the last 2 months of your term; sale viewings any time by appointment. If the unit is sold, the standard lease says the sale is subject to your tenancy — you are not evicted (check this line isn't struck out). If the building goes en-bloc, the landlord can end the lease on 3 months' written notice with your deposit refunded.

The option to renew requires your written request ≥2 calendar months before expiry and a clean record. Renewal is at prevailing market rent — the price isn't locked — and the renewal term normally carries no diplomatic clause unless you negotiate one back in. Diarise the deadline; miss it and you lose the right.

Apply for utilities and internet at least 14 days before move-in; in a condo, book bulky-item moves with management first (usually working hours and Saturday morning only, sometimes a lift deposit). Do the handover inventory with photos on day one. Links for everything: Useful Links & Contacts.

Every money clause in the lease is a blank: the repair cap, the deposit months, the diplomatic-clause qualifying period, the defect-free window. The landlord's agent fills them for the landlord — CEA's rules mean they can't also act for you. A recent example: a tenant client asked whether her LOI money would be lost if her pass wasn't approved. We wrote the IPA refund condition into the LOI before she paid — one sentence, settled in a day. That sentence only gets written when someone on your side asks for it.

Going direct? Genuinely fine — just do these five: check the repair-cap number everywhere it appears, get the diplomatic-clause months written in, put every request on the LOI list before paying, demand a photo inventory at handover, and e-stamp the lease yourself within 14 days. And the honest economics: on rents above roughly S$3,500/month, a tenant's agent is usually paid by the landlord's side — having someone whose whole job is those five items often costs you nothing. Either way, the checklist is yours: tick through it here.

Deposits run 2–3 months; rent is quoted per sq ft plus GST; and you should negotiate a rent-free fitting-out period — the form has a blank for it, and if you don't ask, you get zero. Retail premises (goods or services, lease ≥1 year) must use the separate Code-of-Conduct lease forms instead. And before falling for any unit: check the use is even allowed there — the full use-by-premises tables.

1) Licence risk is yours: losing your permit doesn't end the lease — rent keeps running. 2) Reinstatement: at exit, the landlord decides what must be restored to handover condition — budget the make-good cost from day one. 3) Work passes: any employee on the premises without a valid MOM pass triggers immediate termination and full deposit forfeiture. There's no diplomatic clause in commercial leases.

HDB flats and bedrooms need HDB approval before renting out. Private residential has a 3-month minimum stay (no short-term letting) and occupancy caps. Check the current rules: HDB / URA links.

Before the tenancy and at every renewal or occupier change you must: verify original passports and passes (LTVP/Student's/Dependant's passes are digital-only since 27 Feb 2023 — check the digital copy), keep copies, and do a face-to-face or video verification. The lease requires tenants to give 14 days' notice of status changes, and a prohibited immigrant on the premises lets you terminate immediately and forfeit the whole deposit — but the enforcement risk sits with you, so do the checks properly.

Market standard: 1 month's deposit per year of lease plus 1 month's advance rental on signing (2–3 months' deposit for commercial). Remember the good-faith deposit from the LOI converts into the security deposit. The lease bars the tenant from living out the deposit — the final month must be paid in full.

Rent unpaid 7 days after the due date (demanded or not) entitles you to terminate and re-enter; late interest accrues at 10% per annum on the printed formula. Require GIRO evidence within 1 month of commencement — it's in the standard lease for a reason.

The standard lease obliges you to refund the deposit (less legitimate deductions) within 14 days of the tenancy ending, without interest. Do the joint inspection promptly, quantify deductions against the signed inventory, and keep the money liquid — dragging past 14 days is how landlords end up at the Small Claims Tribunals.

When a tenant lawfully ends the lease early (diplomatic clause included), the standard lease entitles you to a pro-rated reimbursement of the agent's commission for the unfulfilled term, deductible from the deposit. On renewals, renewal commission is payable per your signed agency agreement.

You keep the roof, ceilings, main structure, walls, floors and embedded wiring/pipes in repair; you pay property tax and fire-insure the building (your property only — tenants insure their own belongings). During the defect-free window, reported defects are yours to fix; after it, you pay the excess above the minor-repair caps and fair wear-and-tear aircon parts (provided the tenant serviced quarterly).

Landed leases push garden, hedges, fences, pest control and pool maintenance onto the tenant — make sure those clauses are in and understood. Room rentals cap the occupier count, ban overnight guests without written consent, and have no diplomatic clause — fill the early-termination blanks (notice + minimum stay) deliberately, and stamp the agreement even though the form is silent on it.

Declare rental income to IRAS; expenses like property tax, maintenance, repairs and loan interest are deductible (or use the simplified 15% deemed-expense option for residential). Check your net position with the Rental Yield & Cash Flow calculator, and the IRAS link for filing.

Same CEA rule as a sale: one salesperson, one side. If your prospective tenant has their own agent, that agent's job is getting the repair cap, deposit months and diplomatic-clause terms in the tenant's favour. Nothing improper about it — but it means the five money blanks in the lease need someone reading them for you too, not just accepting the tenant side's draft.

Beyond finding a tenant: verifying the tenant's pass and income before you sign anything, pricing to actual transacted rents so you're not leaving money on the table or sitting vacant, and making sure the immigration due-diligence paperwork — your legal duty, not the agent's — is actually done and filed. A vacant unit and an unqualified tenant both cost more than the commission.

You may show the unit to prospective new tenants only in the last 2 months of the term, but sale viewings any time by appointment. Selling doesn't evict the tenant — the standard lease makes the sale subject to the tenancy, and the buyer takes over lease and deposit.

En-bloc redevelopment lets you terminate on 3 months' written notice (deposit refunded, no claims). If fire or similar events make the unit unfit, rent suspends proportionately and either side may terminate. At natural expiry, the tenant must request renewal ≥2 months before — otherwise plan the handover: joint inspection, inventory check, deposit settlement within 14 days.