Just about 2 years back, the average time it takes to sell an HDB flat was 3 months.
With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the inflow of foreign construction workers and causing delays in the completion of BTO flats, the timeline has been shortened somewhat.
According to a Straits Times report dated 31st October, a 5-room flat in Bishan was sold for a record $1.36 million, just 3 days after it was put on the market, with the seller receiving multiple offers.
This is a very rare case if you ask property agents.
In today’s article, we take a look at the average timeline & procedure for selling an HDB flat.
Register Intent to Sell - 1 day
The first thing to do is of course to register your intention to sell your flat. You can do so at the HDB self-service portal and log in using your Singpass.
Once you have logged in, you will be guided through the process of selling your flat.
The intent to sell is valid for a period of 12 months.
Marketing period - 4 weeks
After you have determined the selling price, you should advertise the property for sale using multiple channels such as property portals, classifieds and social media.
Remember to post well-taken pictures that show the best features of your unit or even a walk-through video to attract more buyers and enquiries.
For a realistic selling price, you can make use of HDB Map Services or HDB’s Resale Flat Prices portal to check the transacted prices for resale flats for the previous 12 months or you can use Mogul.sg’s M-value for a free property valuation.
During this period, upon receiving enquiries, you will conduct viewings and if there are potential buyers, negotiate the price.
Issuance & acceptance of option to purchase - 3 weeks
After you agree on the selling price and option fee (usually $1,000) with a buyer, you can issue an option to purchase (OTP).
The OTP gives the buyer the exclusive right to purchase the property from you and is valid for 21 days.
Once you have granted the OTP to a buyer, you are not allowed to grant an OTP to another buyer until the first one expires.
Resale application submission and acceptance - 8 weeks
If the buyer accepts the OTP, he/she will have to pay a deposit that should not exceed $5,000 (inclusive of the option fee).
You and the buyer should agree on a date of resale submission.
The resale submission can be done via the HDB Resale Portal with the following information/documents:
Address of the flat you are buying
Option to Purchase details (E.g. OTP Serial No., Option Grant/ Exercise Date, Purchase price, Option Fee/ Option Exercise Fee)
Sellers’ particulars
Buyers’ and Occupiers’ particulars
Manner of Holding of HDB flat
Indicate whether you are applying for any CPF Housing Grants/ Proximity Housing Grant
Indicate whether you are taking any housing loan from HDB/ Financial Institution (FI)
Declarations regarding your purchase
Upon receipt of the resale application and supporting documents, HDB will verify the information provided by both parties.
If both applications are in order, HDB will notify both parties of the acceptance of the application via SMS or email.
HDB will also arrange a date for buyers and sellers to attend to complete the resale transaction.
Here, both parties will need to pay an administrative fee (inclusive of GST) of $40 (1 & 2 room flats) or $80 (3 rooms and above). Payment is easy and simple, via credit card (Visa/MasterCard) or by scanning the QR code using any of the supporting mobile payment apps such as NETSPay, DBS PayLah!, POSBANK/DBS Digibank, UOB Mighty and OCBC Pay Anyone.
Before the appointment date, you should ensure that your flat is ready for HDB’s inspection which is usually about five working days after the application is approved.
The HDB inspector will look out for the following:
- Any unauthorised renovation work or illegal installations
- Any major cracks on the walls, broken tiles etc
- Unwanted items left by the seller?
- Electrical points not working
- Faulty windows
- Keys to window grills and bedroom doors are intact
- Ceilings and corners for signs of water leakage
If everything is in order, it is time to complete the transaction.
Completion of Resale
Now comes the final step, the resale completion appointment at HDB HUB.
Both you and the buyer will have to submit the original OTP to HDB.
You, the seller, must produce evidence of payment of service and conservancy charges and property tax and the buyers have to produce the receipt for the final cash payment (if any).
For buyers taking a loan from HDB, he/she will have to produce a valid Certificate of Insurance for a Mortgage Fire Insurance Policy on the resale flat issued by HDB’s appointed Insurer.
Both parties will then sign the legal instruments for the transfer of ownership, mortgage, the relevant forms and undertakings, and lastly, you will hand over the keys to the flat to the buyer.
If there are any net proceeds from the sale, they will be released to you upon completion of the sale, and any refund to the CPF will be credited to your CPF account between 7 to 14 days from the date of completion.
Do take note that you are required to move out of the flat by the resale completion date.
If you need more time to move out, you can arrange with the buyers for a temporary extension of stay in the flat for up to 3 months after the resale completion. It is best to discuss this with the buyers while negotiating the sale of the flat.
The request for the extension of stay has to be submitted with the resale application. The extension of stay is only for a period of 3 months and there will not be any extension beyond the 3 months. The flat buyers (new owners) must inform the HDB Branch managing an administrative fee of $20 (inclusive of GST) is payable by the buyers as the new owners of the flat agree to the extension.
So there you have it, a quick guide to the timeline and procedure of selling an HDB flat.
For more property news, resources and useful content like this article, check out Mogul.sg blog here.
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