Easy Guide For First Time HDB Sellers.

First things first, you will need to ascertain that you are eligible to sell your flat before going about it, and the most important thing to know is if you have fulfilled the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for your flat.

The MOP for most flats is 5 years, the MOP starts from the date you collect the keys to your flat.

Do note that any period where you do not occupy the flat is excluded. For example, when the whole flat was rented out or an infringement on the flat lease.

To be sure, we recommend that you check your eligibility by visiting My HDBPage and log in with your SingPass.

We also recommend that you plan ahead by checking all the costs involved in selling your flat, and calculating your sales proceeds to ensure that you have the necessary cashflow for your next property. HDB features a Sales Proceeds Calculator on their website that you can use for that purpose.

Kickstart the selling process by going into the HDB Resale Portal and register your intent to sell.

Right upon registration, the portal will generate information that is essential to the selling of your flat:

• Your eligibility to sell your HDB flat.
• Ethnic Integration Policy / Singapore Permanent Resident (EIP/SPR) Quota for your block.
• Upgrading status of your block, and billing of those costs.
• Recent transacted prices of nearby flats.

The (EIP/SPR) quota lets you know the demographics you can sell your flat to. It is updated on the 1^st of every month. You can use an e-service on HDB’s website to check the quota for following months here.

You should also know if your flat is under any Upgrading / Estate Renewal Programmes. If there are any completed upgrading works, you will need the billing date schedule. If you are the flat owner as of the date of billng, you are required to pay the upgrading cost. There is also an e-service on HDB’s website to check for this here.

The Intent to Sell is valid for 12 months. If HDB does not receive your resale application within this period, you will have to apply again.

Now that you are ready to put the flat for sale on the market you can decide on the price. You could seek the advise of your agent instead of coming up with an arbitrary figure. Mispricing could turn potential buyers away, or worse, undervalue your flat.

At Insight Homes, we do in-depth analysis of your surrounding area, recent transactions and other relevant data to find the right pricing strategy. For a free valuation of your flat, simply fill out this form.

After you have priced your flat, your agent will start to market your flat on the various available platforms. Commonly used platforms are Propertyguru, 99.co and even the classified ads. We find that video home tours are an effective marketing tool in the current market. You can read more about selling your flat using a video home tour here.

If you have found a buyer and accepted their offer, congrats! The next step is about securing that offer, and to do so you have to issue an Option to Purchase (OTP) to the buyer.

The HDB-prescribed Option to Purchase is the only agreement that you are allowed to use in the sale of your flat. You can download a copy on HDB’s website here. It is recommended that you read through the Important Notes of the OTP and Terms and Conditions of Resale carefully.

There are a few important things to note with using the OTP:

• You can only grant an OTP at least 7 calendar days after the registration of your Intent to Sell as a cooling-off period.
• Only 1 copy of the OTP as each form has its own unique serial number.
• You and the buyer must declare to HDB the true resale price of the flat that you have both agreed upon.

The buyer will have to pay you an Option Fee that ranges anywhere between S$1 to S$1,000 (the amount is to be negotiated between buyer and seller) in exchange for your signed OTP.

You are no longer allowed to sell the flat to anybody else, once the buyer has paid the option fee. The buyer will then have 21 calendar days (it expires at 4pm of the 21^st day) after the Option Date to exercise this OTP, by signing on it and paying to you an Option Exercise Fee.

Both the option fee and option exercise fee make up the Deposit, which ranges anywhere between S$1 to S$5,000 (once again, this amount is to be negotiated between buyer and seller).

And in the event that the buyer does not exercise the OTP within the option window, you can keep the option fee and sell your flat to another buyer. The same process is then repeated for the new buyer.

Do note that the bank or HDB may send a valuer to inspect your property during this period, depending on the loan that the buyer is taking to finance this purchase.

After issuing the OTP to your buyer, the next step is to engage a lawyer to manage the conveyancing process and ensure that all legal aspects are in order, making for a smooth transaction.

You can choose to hire either a HDB or private lawyer if you are servicing a HDB loan for the flat that you’re selling. And you can get an estimation of the legal fees here if you appoint HDB to act for you.

However, if you had taken a bank loan for your flat, you’ll have to appoint a private lawyer. And you will need a letter from your appointed lawyer to confirm that they are acting for you in the conveyancing of the resale transaction when you submit your resale application to HDB.

After the OTP has been exercised by the buyer, both you and the buyer must submit their respective portions of the resale application to HDB, together with the necessary documents via HDB Resale Portal.

In the OTP, both you and the buyer will have agreed on a timeframe to submit the resale application to HDB (This timeframe can be extended with mutual consent).

Both seller and buyer portions of the application must be submitted within 7 calendar days from each other, and either party can initiate the submission. It’s important to note that the application will lapse if that time limit is exceeded, and both parties will have to restart the application process!

To prepare for the resale application, you will need:

• Details of the OTP (i.e. OTP serial No., Option Grant / Exercise Date, Purchase price, Option Fee / Option Exercise Fee)
• Buyers’ particulars
• Sellers’ particulars
• Indicate whether you have an existing loan with HDB or a Financial Institution
• Declarations regarding your purchase

You may also be required to submit additional supporting documents for the resale application, and these will be listed in the HDB Resale Portal when you submit the application. You can find a list of the relevant documents that HDB may request here.

HDB will then verify the information that has been provided by the buyers and sellers, and notify both parties via SMS and email within 10 working days if the application has been accepted. You can also log in to the HDB Resale Portal and check for updates on the application status.

An administrative fee of S$40 – S$80 is payable online via credit card every time that you submit an application.

Upon the acceptance of your resale application, you will then be required to endorse documents which HDB has prepared for you through the HDB Resale Portal.

You’ll be notified via SMS to endorse these documents within 6 days, and do note that resale documents must be endorsed individually by all of the sellers. It is advised that you do this within the deadline to avoid any delays to your resale completion.

These documents will include:

• Seller’s sales proceeds
• Acknowledgement of Upgrading Programme, if applicable
• Spouse Consent for Sale of Flat, if applicable (If your spouse is an occupier of the flat, your spouse must agree to vacate the flat when the sale is completed)
• Resale documents for acknowledgement.

After endorsing the resale documents, you will then be directed to make payment for legal fees online if HDB is acting for you in this transaction. The accepted payment modes are either credit cards, or any of the AXS methods (website, mobile app or kiosks).

Typically within 2 weeks after both parties have endorsed on the above documents, HDB will grant an approval for the sale and notify you via SMS and email.

An approval letter will also be posted on the HDB Resale Portal for you to view, and on it, there will be a tentative date for the resale completion appointment. This date is generally about 8 weeks from the date of acceptance of the resale application. 

We are in the home stretch now! There are just a couple more things for you to do before the resale appointment at HDB:

• HDB will arrange for an inspection of your flat upon approval of the resale application. The purpose of the inspection is to check for unauthorised renovation works in the flat that you have to rectify before the resale completion.

• You are also required to settle any outstanding payments for Service and conservancy charges up to the day of resale completion, as well as property tax up to end of the year.

On the day of the appointment, both you and the buyer need to be present at HDB Hub to sign legal documents, and for you to hand over the keys to the buyer. HDB will notify you on the actual date and time of this appointment via SMS, but as always, you can find this information on the HDB Resale Portal.

If you have engaged a private lawyer, the lawyer will attend the completion appointment on your behalf. But if you have appointed a HDB lawyer, you must attend the appointment in person. 

And finally, you will, of course, have to move out before the date of completion, so that the buyer can take possession of the flat after the appointment.

The only exception to this is if you have applied for an extension of stay. This extension is subject to the flat buyer’s agreement, and the request has to be submitted to HDB during your resale application. You can find more information on this process here.