How to Buy a Resale HDB Flat

Are you looking to buy a resale HDB flat? We’ll guide you through the key milestones when buying an HDB flat from the open market.

Step 1: Apply for an HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter & plan your finances

What you need to do:

• Apply for an HFE letter through the HDB Flat Portal – the HFE letter will confirm your eligibility to buy a resale flat, as well as the CPF housing grants, and the HDB housing loan amount you can receive.

• If you wish to take a housing loan from a financial institution (FI), you may also concurrently apply for In-Principle Approvals (IPA) from participating FIs when you apply for an HFE letter. 

Learn more in our step-by-step guide on how to apply for an HFE letter.

What you need to know:

• Your HFE letter will be valid for 9 months – you must have a valid HFE letter when you obtain an Option to Purchase (OTP) from a flat seller and submit a resale application.

• With the housing and financing options in your HFE letter, you can work out a budget for your resale flat. With HDB’s budget calculator, you can retrieve information from your approved HFE letter, and be guided through the process of calculating your flat budget.

• First-timers buying resale flats can receive up to $230,000 in grants – read more in our guide to CPF housing grants.

• When buying a resale flat, there will be legal fees involved for conveyancing (transferring ownership of the flat from the seller to you) and taking up a mortgage loan. If you’re taking a housing loan from HDB, HDB can act as your solicitor. If you’re taking a housing loan from a Financial Institution (FI), you will need to appoint a private solicitor – FIs typically work with an approved panel of law firms for home purchase transactions, so you should check with your FI on their arrangements.

Step 2: Search for a resale HDB flat

What you need to do:

• Once you have a better idea of the budget you are working with, you can either engage a real estate salesperson to help you with your search, or look through resale flat listings online yourself. For example, you can use the HDB Flat Portal, which is a one-stop platform where you’ll find verified resale flat listings (all data are automatically retrieved from HDB’s database!), with useful filters to help you sieve out flats you are eligible for, e.g. under the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP). The portal can also help you generate personalised payment plans (based on data from your valid HFE letter), and more.

What happens next:

• If there’s a flat you are interested in, you and the sellers must mutually agree on the resale price of the flat – check the recent transacted resale flat prices to help you make an informed decision on how much to pay for the flat.

Step 3: Obtain an Option to Purchase (OTP) from a seller

What you need to do:

• Once you have decided on the resale flat that you would like to purchase and agreed on a price for it, you need to obtain an OTP from the seller. An OTP is a legally binding contract between flat sellers and buyers in a resale transaction.

• Your HFE letter has a validity period of 9 months, so ensure it’s still valid before you obtain the OTP.

What you need to know:

• You and the seller must use the HDB-prescribed OTP for the resale transaction. Any other agreements and/ or supplementary agreements relating to the sale or purchase of the flat will not be valid.

• Print only 1 copy of the OTP as each form has a unique serial number. You must state the serial number of the OTP when you submit a resale application to HDB.

• You do not have to sign on the OTP yet at this stage.

• Once the flat sellers have granted the OTP to you, they cannot grant another OTP to other flat buyers until the OTP granted to you has expired.

• The Option Period is 21 calendar days (including Saturdays, Sundays, and Public Holidays). It starts from the date of the flat seller granting the OTP (see step 3). Use this Option Period wisely and do not rush into exercising the OTP (i.e. proceeding with the flat purchase by signing the OTP and paying the Option Exercise Fee to the seller). During the Option Period, you will need to complete Steps 4 to 6 below, where applicable.

Step 4: Confirm mode of financing

What you need to do:

• Before you exercise the OTP, you will need to confirm your mode of financing (i.e. cash, CPF savings, and/ or a housing loan) for your flat purchase on My Flat Dashboard.

• If you intend to take an HDB housing loan, your valid HFE letter will reflect your loan eligibility and amount.

• If you intend to take a housing loan from an FI, you must have a valid Letter of Offer (LO).

Step 5: Submit a Request for Value (if applicable)

What you need to do:

• If you wish to take up a housing loan or use your CPF savings to finance the purchase of the flat, you will need to submit a Request for Value to HDB by the next working day after the sellers grant you the OTP.

• Upon receiving the outcome of the Request for Value, you (as the flat buyer) will have to decide whether to exercise the OTP.

Step 6: Convert In-Principle Approval (IPA) into a Letter of Offer (LO) (if applicable)

What you need to do:

• If you are taking a housing loan from a Financial Institution and have requested an IPA while applying for the HFE letter (see Step 1), you can convert the IPA into an LO at this step, before exercising the OTP during the Option Period.

Step 7: Submit resale application

What you need to do:

• After you exercise the OTP, you and the seller must submit your respective portions of the resale application on the HDB Flat Portal. Remember that you’ll need a valid HFE letter when you submit your resale application (see Step 1).

What happens next:

• If the application is in order, we will notify you and the sellers of HDB’s acceptance of the application via SMS or email, within 28 working days after receiving the complete resale application and full set of supporting documents from you and the seller.

• We will also notify both parties of the resale completion date, which is usually about 8 weeks from HDB’s acceptance of the resale application.

Step 8: Acknowledge resale documents

What you need to do:

• You and the sellers must acknowledge and endorse the resale documents, which will be ready about 3 weeks after the application has been accepted. HDB will notify you and the seller via SMS to log in to My Flat Dashboard to do so.

• If you appoint HDB as the solicitors for the purchase of the flat, the documents to endorse include: buyer’s financial plan, CPF withdrawal, health declaration for CPF Board’s Home Protection Scheme, and the resale documents.

• If you appoint your own solicitors for the purchase of the flat, the documents that you will endorse may be different from the above.

Step 9: Make initial payment and pay fees

What you need to do:

• Ensure you make payment for all required fees and initial payment by the deadline given by HDB.

What you need to know:

• You will need to make the initial payment with cash and/ or CPF Ordinary Account (OA) savings (including CPF housing grant if eligible), depending on your financing options as shown in the table below:

Note: The LTV limit is the maximum amount of your flat's price or value that you can borrow as a loan. This limit helps ensure you don’t borrow more than you can afford to repay.

Step 10: Get resale approval from HDB

What you need to do:

• Once you have endorsed the resale documents and made the necessary payments promptly, you can expect to receive HDB’s approval in about 2 weeks!

• Before your resale completion appointment, please buy an HDB fire insurance policy for the flat from the HDB-appointed insurer, if you are taking a housing loan from HDB. If your sellers have a valid HDB fire insurance for the flat, you do not need to buy another fire insurance – but do remember to renew the policy when the existing one expires. You must buy and renew the HDB fire insurance every 5 years for your home, as long as you have an outstanding HDB loan.

Step 11: Attend resale completion appointment

What you need to do:

• Bring the required documents: identity cards, payment receipts and/or Cashier’s Order, Certificate of Insurance (for fire insurance, if applicable)

• Sign the mortgage document/ agreement (if you are taking an HDB housing loan)

• Acknowledge receipt of the keys to your new flat

• Pay the apportioned property tax to the sellers

• State how you will pay the service and conservancy charges for the first month

Congratulations, you’re now the proud owner of your HDB resale flat!