Map Out Your Next Property Move, Deadline by Deadline

From starting your search to collecting keys, a resale HDB purchase typically takes about three to five months. Most of that is the resale process itself: once the Option to Purchase is exercised, the buyer and seller submit the resale application on the HDB Resale Portal, HDB takes up to about 28 working days to accept it, and processing through to the completion appointment runs roughly eight weeks more. The single most variable part is finding a flat and agreeing a price, which can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a few months. The HDB stages are largely fixed and cannot be fast-tracked.

It depends on how you pay for the flat. Since 28 July 2026, private property owners and ex-owners buying a non-subsidised resale HDB flat without an HDB housing loan no longer serve the 15-month wait-out, so you can buy the flat before you sell — as long as you dispose of your private property, whether in Singapore or overseas, within six months of completing the flat purchase. The 30-month wait-out still applies if you take an HDB housing loan or a CPF housing grant, or buy a new flat from HDB or a new Executive Condominium from a developer. You must then sell first, and the 30 months run from the legal completion of the sale — not the day you found a buyer or exercised the option — before you can apply for the HDB Flat Eligibility letter, so the whole move commonly spans three years or more.

Buyer's Stamp Duty — and Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty, if it applies — is payable within 14 days of exercising the Option to Purchase. The 14-day countdown begins on the date you exercise. If the purchase document is signed overseas, the deadline is 30 days from when it is received in Singapore. Late payment carries IRAS penalties that escalate the longer it goes unpaid. In most transactions your conveyancing lawyer handles the e-stamping, but the deadline is fixed regardless of who pays.

For a resale HDB flat, the OTP is valid for 21 calendar days — the buyer must exercise within that window or it lapses. For private property, the option period is typically 14 to 21 days, set by agreement between the parties. If a buyer does not exercise within the validity period, the option lapses and the option fee is generally forfeited to the seller. Because the window is short, buyers should have financing lined up before accepting an OTP.

Plan for roughly three to five months from listing to cash-in-hand, though finding a buyer is the unpredictable part. Once the buyer exercises the OTP, completion is typically eight to twelve weeks away for private property, while an HDB sale runs through the resale application and completion appointment over a similar period. The cash you receive on completion is the sale price after the outstanding loan is redeemed and the CPF you used is refunded to your CPF Ordinary Account with accrued interest — so the proceeds reach you at completion, not when the buyer signs.

Buying before selling means you briefly own two properties, so ABSD is charged in full on the new purchase and paid upfront. A married couple — at least one a Singapore Citizen, buying the new home jointly — can get it back if the first home is sold within six months of buying the new one. Both dates are option dates, not completion: the purchase counts from when you accept its Option to Purchase, and the sale from when your buyer accepts theirs. For a new launch still under construction, the six months run instead from the issue of TOP or CSC, whichever comes first. IRAS does not extend this deadline, so be ready to float the ABSD in the meantime — it can be a very large sum. And if your buyer accepts the option on your current home before you commit to the next one, it already counts as sold, so no second-home ABSD is charged.

On a resale purchase, BSD usually has to be paid in cash first because there is not enough time to draw down CPF within the 14-day deadline. If you have sufficient CPF Ordinary Account savings, the amount can then be reimbursed to you — your conveyancing lawyer typically submits the reimbursement around legal completion, once the property is in your name. The cash refund is generally released within roughly one to four weeks of completion depending on processing. ABSD works the same way: it is paid in cash within the 14 days, and your CPF Ordinary Account can then reimburse it, within CPF's usage limits. Because the refund is not instant, keep a cash buffer for the period around completion.

An uncompleted new launch or BTO is paid in stages rather than all at once. After the booking fee and signing the Sale & Purchase agreement, payments fall due as each construction milestone is certified — foundation, reinforced concrete framework, brick walls, roofing and ceiling, car park and so on — with the home loan drawn down in step, so interest is charged only on the amount disbursed. A larger instalment is due at TOP, when keys are handed over, and the final instalment at CSC, usually about a year later. The whole timeline commonly runs two to four years from booking to completion.