Intent to Sell

To start your journey of selling your flat, you will need to register an Intent to Sell by logging on to the HDB Resale Portal using your Singpass.

Purpose of registering an Intent to Sell

The allows you to check your eligibility to sell your flat. Upon registering an Intent to Sell, you will be informed of when you may start to grant an grant an Option to Purchase (OTP) to potential buyers.

You will also receive information about the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) and Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) Quota for your block, status of upgrading, billing of upgrading costs, and recent transacted prices of nearby flats. There is no fee payable for registering an Intent to Sell.

Your Intent to Sell is valid for 12 months. It must be valid when you grant the OTP to the buyer(s) and during the submission of the resale application.
Sellers to register an Intent to Sell

You must register an Intent to Sell personally, regardless whether you have engaged a salesperson for the sale of your flat. If there is more than one flat owner, only one of you need to register on behalf of all the flat owners.

If there are any personal matters that may affect the flat ownership, such as divorce or estate issues, it is advisable that these matters are settled before you register the Intent to Sell.

Important notes:

  • The results generated from the Intent to Sell are based on information you have provided. It is only an indication of your eligibility and does not constitute an approval by HDB to sell your flat. This will be determined after we receive your resale application
  • You must provide accurate information when you register an Intent to Sell and cannot change the information provided throughout your selling journey. If you need to make changes, you have to cancel your Intent to Sell and register a new one. Otherwise, you will not be able to proceed to the subsequent steps and your resale application may not be processed
After registering an Intent to Sell

After registering an Intent to Sell, you will be prompted to download a copy of the OTP and to compute your estimated sale proceeds.

You are required to wait out a 7-day cooling-off period before granting the OTP to the buyers.

Planning the sale of your flat

Before granting an OTP to potential buyers, you should:

Compute your estimated sale proceeds

Understand how your sale proceeds will be computed.

Financial planning is important, especially if you need to buy your next home after selling your current flat.

Use our sale proceeds calculator to get an estimate of the cash proceeds you may receive. The information will be useful in your budgeting for the next home purchase.

Computation of sale proceeds

You have to settle all outstanding payments when you sell your flat. The sale proceeds from selling your flat is the resale price of the flat, less the following:

  • Outstanding housing loan
  • Return of CPF savings used with accrued interest to your CPF account
  • Cash deposit received from your flat buyer (up to $5,000)
  • Any other amounts payable, e.g. resale levy, upgrading costs, etc.

Outstanding housing loan

The outstanding housing loan refers to the loan amount that has not been fully paid yet. The outstanding housing loan will be deducted from the resale price, if sufficient.

If the resale price is insufficient to settle the outstanding housing loan, you must pay for the balance in cash.

To find out your outstanding housing loan amount, you can:

  • Check My HDBPage (‘My Flat > Purchased Flat > Financial Info’), for housing loans from HDB
  • Approach your lending financial institution (FI), for housing loans from FIs

CPF savings used

Any CPF savings used for the purchase of your existing flat, either as downpayment or for the monthly instalments, are to be returned with accrued interest to your CPF account when you sell your flat.

The amount to be returned to your CPF account will be deducted from the resale price. If there is a shortfall in the CPF refund, the cash deposit that you have received from the buyers will be used to settle the shortfall.

To find out the amount of CPF to be refunded to your CPF account upon the sale of your flat, you may log in to the CPF Website (Select ‘my cpf’ > ‘My dashboards’ > ‘Home ownership’ > ‘Principal amount and accrued interest’).

Resale levy

A resale levy is payable in cash when you buy a second subsidised flat or an Executive Condominium unit from a property developer.

You will be informed if you are required to pay a resale levy when you register your Intent to Sell. If you have to pay a resale levy, you may want to set aside the levy amount from the sale proceeds you receive.

Upgrading costs

You have to pay for the upgrading cost if you are the flat owner on the date the bill was issued. The outstanding amount can be deducted from the resale price, if sufficient, or paid in cash or with CPF savings.

You can view the status of upgrading and the billing status for the upgrading costs of your flat when you register your Intent to Sell. Alternatively, you may check the status of the upgrading programme via the Enquiry on Upgrading/ Estate Renewal Programmes e-Service.

Learn more about payment of upgrading cost and billing:

Upgrading levy

If your existing flat is in an upgraded precinct, you may have to pay an upgrading levy when you sell the flat. The 10% upgrading levy is calculated based on the selling price of the flat, or 90% of the market value of the flat, whichever is higher.

Who needs to pay the Upgrading Levy?

  • Singapore Citizen (SC) households who have benefitted from the Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) (discontinued from August 2007) 2 times or more
  • Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) households whose flats were upgraded under MUP (Batch 6 and before)

Who need not pay the Upgrading Levy?

  • SC owners who sell their second or subsequent MUP flat (Batch 7 onwards)
  • SPR owners who sell their MUP flat (Batch 7 onwards)

Plan for your next flat

Some considerations you should include in planning for your next accommodation after selling your flat.

Planning for your next flat purchase should be part of your considerations when you sell your current flat. Before you commit to sell your flat, you should consider the following:

  • Options available for next flat purchase
  • Financial considerations

Options available for next flat purchase

Here are some options that you may consider your next flat purchase:

From HDB You may be able to buy a flat from HDB. Read more about the eligibility conditions and buying procedure for new flats.
From the open market Another option is to buy a resale flat. Read more about the eligibility conditions and buying procedure for resale flats.
From property developers Executive Condominiums (EC) units offer design and facility options similar to private condominiums, at competitive prices. Learn more about the eligibility conditions to buy an EC unit, buying procedure and EC projects on offer.

Financial considerations

Financial planning is important and should be done before commencing your next flat purchase. If you intend to buy an HDB flat, you should consider:

Financing planning for flat purchase Work out your sums with our ABCs of financial planning – Ability to Pay, Budget for Flat, and Credit to Finance a Flat Purchase, and tap on our financial tools such as our budget calculator.
Requirements for taking a second HDB housing loan If you are taking a second HDB housing loan, the loan amount will be reduced using the CPF refund and up to 50% of the cash proceeds from the sale of your flat.
Eligibility for Enhanced Contra Facility If you intend to buy a resale flat using the sale proceeds and CPF refund from the disposal of your current flat, you can apply for the Enhanced Contra Facility to reduce your cash outlay.