According to data released by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on 23 Apr 2021, HDB resale prices went up by 3% in Q1 2021 as compared with Q4 2020. This represents the fourth consecutive quarter that HDB resale prices have gone up. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, HDB resale prices are slowly moving to the highest resale prices recorded in Q2 of 2013. Resale prices for the whole of 2020, rose 4.8% a stark contrast to the 0.1% increase in 2019 and the 0.9% decline in 2018.
In January and February of this year, the two most popular towns for resale transactions were Sengkang and Punggol. Based on data from the government's one-stop portal to its publicly-available datasets, data.gov.sg, there were 447 HDB resale transactions in Sengkang and 446 HDB resale transactions in Punggol. The next two popular towns were Tampines and Bedok, which saw 343 and 268 HDB resale transactions respectively.
With HDB resale prices on the uptrend and if you are thinking of buying one, we will look at the requirements, application process and fees involved in this article.
Register Intent to Sell
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 @ https://services2.hdb.gov.sg/webapp/BB31AWDashboardWeb/BB31PLogin.jsp and login using your Singpass. Once you have logged in, you will be guided through the process of selling your flat.
Within the portal, you can also submit a request for value. HDB's appointed valuer will a conduct physical inspection of your flat and give you a recommended value, which you can then decide on the selling price.
However, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, if the physical inspection is not possible due to any person in the flat being under a Quarantine Order/ Stay-Home Notice/ Leave of Absence, HDB may request for the latest photographs of the flat for valuation.
For 1 or 2 rooms flats, the cost for each resale application is $40 and for 3 rooms and bigger, the cost is $80 for each application. For Request for Value, The processing fee for each Request for Value is $120 (GST inclusive). Both payments can be made via credit card or QR code.
Issuance of Option to Purchase
After you have secured a buyer, an option to purchase (OTP) is signed between you and the buyer. The OTP gives the buyer the exclusive right to purchase the property from you. But that’s not the end of the paperwork – it’s where your HDB resale application starts.
Resale Application
After exercising the Option to Purchase (OTP), both sellers and buyers must submit their respective resale application 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
As each form of the OTP has a unique serial number, it is used as the contract in this transaction and the seller should then pay you an option fee which is usually $1,000. Take note that you can only grant an OTP to buyers at least 7 days after registering your intent to sell. Once the OTP granted, it will be valid for 21 days (including Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays), during which the buyers have to confirm their decision to go ahead with the purchase or withdraw. During this period, a second OTP cannot be granted to another buyer.
When the buyers exercise the OTP, they will have to put down a deposit which cannot be more than $5,000, inclusive of the option fee. In the event the buyer does not exercise the OTP within the option window, you can keep the option fee.
Upon receipt of the resale application and supporting documents, HDB will verify the information provided by both parties. Both sellers and buyers must ensure that all the eligibility conditions and resale requirements are met when submitting your resale application. If both applications are in order, HDB will notify both parties on the acceptance of the application via SMS or email. The usual time taken to approve the application is about 8 weeks from the date of acceptance of the resale application.
Resale Application Fees
After submission of the application to HDB via the HDB Resale Portal, you will be required to pay an administrative fee (inclusive of GST) of $40 or $80, depending on the flat type. This administrative fee is payable by both buyer and seller. For convenience, payment can be made by 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.
During the period when your application is under approval, you can check the status of my resale application via the HDB Resale Portal.
During this period, 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
As the resale transaction takes about 8 weeks to complete, both parties will be informed of the completion date in the completion letter, and to attend the completion appointment at HDB Hub.
However before the transaction, you, the seller will have to ensure that the GIRO account (if any) for all payments pertaining to the resale flat must be terminated and that the property tax and service & conservancy charges are paid up to the effective date of resale.
On the day of completion of the resale at the Resale Office, the sellers and buyers will submit the original OTP to HDB. You have to produce evidence of payment of service and conservancy charges and property tax whereas the buyers have to produce the receipt for the final cash payment (if any). If the buyer is 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, it 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 need more time to move out, you can arrange with the buyers for a temporary extension of stay in the flat of 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 agreeing to the extension.
So there you have it, a complete guide to the HDB resale application process, fees & requirements.
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