Buying a resale flat runs through HDB rather than between two lawyers alone, so the order of events is fixed and most of it happens on the HDB Flat Portal. Budget around eight weeks from a granted option to completion.
Check that you can buy, and get your HFE letter
You need an eligible household: citizens buying with family, or a single citizen aged 35 or over. The HDB Flat Eligibility letter confirms in one place what you may buy, what grants you qualify for and how much HDB will lend. Get it before you view anything, because a seller will ask for it.
Income ceilings apply to an HDB loan and to the grants: $14,000 a month for most families, $21,000 for extended families and $7,000 for singles.
Work out a real budget
Price is only part of it. Add the cash you must put down, the stamp duty, conveyancing and the renovation that an older flat will need. Take off the grants you qualify for. Our affordability calculator does the loan arithmetic, and the search shows what blocks in your towns actually sold for.
Look at blocks, not just flats
Two flats in the same town can differ by hundreds of thousands because of the block: how much is left, which floor, how far the MRT is and which primary schools fall within 1 km. Every block page here shows all four, along with what that size actually sold for.
Get the Option to Purchase
You pay the seller an option fee of $1 to $1,000 to hold the flat. You then have 21 days to exercise it, paying the rest of the option exercise fee, so that the two together come to no more than $5,000.
Request the valuation
After the option is granted, request an HDB valuation. It sets how much CPF and loan you can use. Anything you agree above the valuation is cash over valuation and must be paid in cash, so it is worth knowing the number before you negotiate.
Submit the resale application
Buyer and seller each submit their half on the portal. HDB checks eligibility, the grants and the loan, then sends both parties the documents to endorse. This is where most of the waiting happens.
Completion and keys
At the completion appointment the loan is drawn down, CPF is released, the balance is paid and the flat changes hands. Take meter readings and check what the seller agreed to leave behind.
Sources: HDB: housing loan from HDB and HDB: minimum occupation period. Confirm every figure with HDB before you rely on it.