HDB Resale Flat Listing Portal: 7 Property agents & homeowners share pros & cons

From May 13 2024, both home owners and agents can list HDB flats for sale on the HDB Flat Portal. The service is currently free.

HDB said that to ensure genuine listings, sellers must have an intent to sell registered to list their homes. Buyers will need an HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter – which indicates their eligibility to buy a flat, receive grants and financing options – to schedule viewings with sellers. Buyers will be able to access the listings and begin transactions with sellers when the service is officially launched later in May. The date has yet to be announced.

HDB said it “reserves the right to remove listings which have unrealistic pricing or contain misleading information from our portal”, and may seek clarifications from sellers or their property agents.

A feature on its listing service alerts sellers when their listing price is 10 per cent or more than the highest transacted price of similar units nearby in the past six months. This is so that sellers can make an informed decision on their listed price, which promotes a more sustainable property market in the long run, but even so, sellers can still list their units.

Here are 2 HDB homeowners and 5 property agents who shared their thoughts and pros and cons of the new HDB resale portal:

• Don't engage property agent
• Save property agent fees
• Easier HFE letter verification
• More eyeballs on Propertyguru
• 10% Price guide
• Control unrealistic HDB resale prices
• Improve HDB resale market
• More co-agent commission

1. Don't have to engage property agent

Two months after appointing a property agent to advertise her Punggol HDB flat while she searched for a new home, senior manager Jessica Chai thought of trying her hand at marketing her unit herself, as she was not in a rush to sell.

“Sometimes, the agent will rush me when he receives an offer for my flat. Perhaps he wants to close the deal quicker, but I haven’t found my dream home yet and it can be quite pressurising,” said the 40-year-old.

She eventually listed the 4-room HDB flat on property platform Ohmyhome, which lets home owners do so themselves at no charge. At present, only real estate agents can put up listings on major property portals such as PropertyGuru and 99.co, which come with fees.

Will use HDB selling portal

Ms Chai said she plans to list her unit and look for her next home on the portal without the help of her agent. “I trust that it will be a safe and reliable platform, and I would be able to market my unit at my own pace while saving on agent fees,” she added. HDB resale sellers typically pay 2 per cent of the sale price to their agent, while buyers pay a 1 per cent commission.

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2. Save on property agent fees

Another seller, who wanted to be known only as Mr Ng for privacy reasons, said he was interested in trying out the service as there are limited platforms where home owners can market their units themselves.

Mr Ng, 46, has placed a listing for his 4-room HDB flat in Sengkang on Ohmyhome, but said he received inquiries from only property agents who asked if he would like to engage their services. “Engaging a property agent would be my last resort as I am not willing to fork out the commission. I hope that listing my flat on the HDB platform would expose my listing to more buyers,” he added.

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3. Better HFE letter checks

Ms Susan Mariam, senior associate district director at real estate firm OrangeTee Group, said she appreciated how the HDB resale flat listing service would save her from having to verify that interested buyers have an HFE letter.

“This requirement ensures the buyers are not wasting their time during viewings. If they don’t have their HFE letter yet, they won’t have a clear idea on their loans and whether they can afford the flat in the first place,” she said.

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4. More eyeballs on PropertyGuru

Property agents told The Straits Times they do not expect the service to entirely replace existing property listing platforms, despite it being free. Mr Brandon Zheng, division director at property firm ERA Realty, said he forks out a nearly six-figure sum a year on PropertyGuru, and it pays off as his listings would get more views.

“I can boost my sellers’ listings, such as by making them appear on top. On the HDB Flat Portal, however, it’s a waiting game as there are no such features,” he added.

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5. 10% Price guide

ERA’s Mr Zheng, however, noted that sellers should not price their flats solely based on the 10 per cent benchmark. For lower-priced flats, such those around $300,000, a 10 per cent increase could be considered reasonable as it is a $30,000 difference, he said. “On the other hand, the 10 per cent difference would be $100,000 for a million-dollar flat – no two properties are alike.”

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6. Control unrealistic HDB resale prices

Mr Nicholas Mak, chief research officer at property search portal Mogul.sg, said the prompt would help to curb inflated asking prices, especially after the authorities recently flagged Sengkang "Jumbo" HDB flat listing with an asking price of $2 million.

“This will offer a reality check for buyers and sellers of resale flats,” he added.

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7. Improves HDB resale market integrity

Ms Christine Sun, chief researcher and strategist at OrangeTee Group, said the listing service would improve market integrity and allow for a more secure, safe and transparent online buying experience. “Some listings (on existing platforms) could be erroneous, repetitive or show unrealistic prices, which can distort market expectations and cause frustration among users,” she added.

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8. More co-agent commission

ERA Singapore key executive officer Eugene Lim noted that the service allows sellers to appoint several co-agents to market their flat, even if they already have an exclusive agent. He said this should be disallowed.

This is because if another agent sells the flat, the seller may be contractually bound to pay a commission to both agents under the Council for Estate Agencies’ Prescribed Estate Agency agreements that the seller would have signed. “We have flagged this to HDB, and they are looking into it.”

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This article was first published in The Straits Times.