What you need to know about HDB’s resale flat listing service

From May 13, sellers of Housing Board flats or their property agents can list their homes for sale directly on the HDB Flat Portal.

When the service is officially launched later in May, buyers will be able to access the listings and begin transactions with sellers.

Here’s everything sellers, buyers and property agents need to know about the new resale flat listing service.

Sellers

Sellers must have an intent to sell registered with HDB in order to list and market their flat themselves. They can also appoint a property agent to manage the listing on their behalf.

When they create a listing, it will be automatically filled with details such as the address, flat type, floor area and floor plan, which is retrieved from HDB’s data. Sellers will only need to upload photos and descriptions of their flat.

They can also indicate their preference for extension of stay and contra, which is a process in which an owner is looking to sell his unit and buy another, and want both transactions to be executed at the same time.

Sellers will be prompted if their listing price is at least 10 per cent above the highest transacted price of similar units nearby in the past six months.

Once listed, sellers can create viewing appointments that interested buyers with a valid HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter can book.

Each seller can only post one flat listing, so that there are no duplicate listings.

Once their flat buyer submits a request for value, which has to be done a day after being granted the option to purchase, the listing would automatically be taken down.

Buyers

Any prospective flat buyer can browse the resale listings on the HDB flat portal, but only those with a valid HFE letter can obtain the sellers’ contact details and schedule viewing appointments.

An HFE letter indicates a buyer’s eligibility to buy a flat, receive grants and take up a housing loan.

Buyers can filter searches by location, flat type, remaining lease or by their ethnicity and citizenship under the Ethnic Integration Policy and Singapore permanent resident quotas.

A resale flat listing will show the recent transacted prices of similar flats nearby, amenities in the area and ethnicity and citizenship quotas.

On the portal, buyers can also view information about current and upcoming new flat launches such as Build-To-Order and Sale of Balance Flats.

They can choose up to three flats to compare attributes such as remaining lease and preliminary payment plans such as the monthly loan repayment amount and cash payment.

Buyers with an HFE letter can view personalised payment plans based on their approved housing grant and HDB loan amount, so that they can more accurately assess if the shortlisted flats are within their budget, HDB said.

After the buyers have exercised their option to purchase, they can submit their resale application on the HDB Flat Portal.

Property agents

Property agents will have a personalised dashboard on the HDB Flat Portal, which gives them an overview of their clients – both buyers and sellers.

HDB said this will help them provide “value-added services” for their clients, such as budgeting and advising them on the next steps.

They can create listings and viewing appointments for sellers, and help buyers to search, shortlist and compare flats.

The service will be free of charge for the time being. Property portals such as PropertyGuru and 99.co charges subscription fees.