There is no fixed guideline on commission, which means how much you pay to your property agent is negotiable. But most of the time, there is a market rate, which we will list here.

HDB Resale

• Seller 2%
• Buyer 1%

HDB is different from private whereby the buyer has to pay his agent 1%, on top of the purchase price. If the buyer doesn’t have an agent, then the 1% fee is saved! Why is HDB so special? It is said that buying HDB is more complex, with more regulations, thus the agent has “more work”. It is absolutely fine for a buyer to DIY.

Private Resale

• Seller 2%
• Buyer agent to co-broke with seller agent 50-50

The big agencies have a rule to charge a minimum of 2%, so as not to undercut their line of business. It can be more than 2%, depending on the circumstances. For example, landed property can go higher.

Private New Launch

• No commission!

The purchase price is all that a buyer pays.

The commission that property agents earn from new launch comes directly from the developer, and ranges widely. When a project is just launched, the commission is lower. It gets higher when the developer couldn’t sell.

You can DIY when buying resale, but there is no point not to engage an agent for a new launch, since you are not paying additional for their service. So DIY all you want, except for new launch.

If you need to engage a agent, you can contact us.

Lease

• Either landlord or tenant pays, co-broke when needed
• 2 years lease, 1 month rental as commission
• 1 year lease, half a month

GST

GST is payable on the commission charged (not the purchase price) as that is a service provided by the agent to the end consumer.

It is compulsory for companies with over $1 million annual revenue to be GST registered; they must collect GST. The big agencies such as Propnex and Huttons are all GST registered, so they will collect GST.

When signing an agreement with an agency, they can either include the GST in the commission payable (eg. 2% commission includes the GST), or exclude the GST.