How Many Property Agents Are There in Singapore? The Count, the Agencies and Who Is Active

Three counts, three dates, one register:

Sources: CEA industry statistics (updated 16 Jan 2026); CNA, 29 Jul 2026; PropKaki's copy of CEA's public register. PropKaki counts agencies with at least one registered salesperson.

In CEA's language, an agent is a registered salesperson and an agency is a licensed estate agent. A salesperson can be registered with only one agency at a time (Estate Agents Act, section 40), so each agent is counted once, under one agency.

The January figure is the one to quote, because it is CEA's own and is comparable year to year. The later counts show the direction: the register kept growing through 2026. 36,816 is the official number; the live register is higher.

A registration is a licence to practise, not proof of practice. Three measures, from three sources:

Read 6 Nov 2026. PropKaki's measure counts every CEA-recorded transaction type, sales and rentals; the CEA and resaleshdb.sg measures count residential deals only.

The Straits Times reported in August 2026 that, by CEA's figures, the median agent completed two residential transactions a year from 2023 to 2025. Some keep their registration "even though they are not practising", the analyst Nicholas Mak told CNA in July 2026.

That gap is what CEA's new renewal rule targets (section 6). It is also why "how many agents" and "how many working agents" are different questions.

CEA's ten largest agencies on 1 January 2026, with PropKaki's register count on 10 October 2026:

Sources: CEA industry statistics, "Top 10 largest agencies as of 1 Jan 2026"; PropKaki's copy of CEA's register, matched by agency licence number.

By October 2026 SN Real Estate had passed C&H as the sixth-largest on PropKaki's copy of the register, with 203 salespersons. 111 KF Property Network agents joined SRI in January 2025, and KFPN will cease operations by the end of 2026, with its remaining eligible agents offered places at OrangeTee (see teams that changed agencies).

How the five compare beyond headcount, on ownership, history and deals per agent, is in PropNex vs ERA vs Huttons vs OrangeTee vs SRI.

The big five's share has risen every year CEA's figures were checked:

Computed from CEA's top-ten tables (CEA, 2021–2026; EdgeProp's report of CEA's 2018 figures).

And the rest of the market is very small agencies. CEA's size bands for 1 January 2026:

On PropKaki's copy of the register in October 2026, 509 agencies had exactly one registered salesperson. On CEA's 1 January figures, PropNex and ERA alone hold 60.8% of all agents. Singapore has about a thousand agencies, but five of them hold nearly nine in ten agents.

Sources: MND's written answer to Parliament, 6 Feb 2017 (2011–2017; the 2011 figure was taken during CEA's first licensing exercise); CEA industry statistics and its archived pages (2019–2026).

The count fell after 2014 to its 2017 low, then rose every year to 2026. Over the same years Global Alliance Property, Savills Residential and SLP Scotia closed their agency arms, and whole teams moved between the big agencies (see teams that changed agencies). More agents, fewer agencies: the growth has gone to the largest firms.

The rule, as CNA reported its announcement on 28 July 2026:

• Three transactions in three years. The first cycle runs from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029.
• Or a refresher exam. An agent who does neither and wants to return must retake and pass the Real Estate Salesperson examination.
• Three-year registrations. Licences and registrations move from one year to three.

CEA does not cap the number of agents. The rule's case, as CEA put it, rests on its 2024 Public Perception Survey: 74% of consumers expect an agent to complete at least one transaction a year. On CEA's figures, 12,920 of the 32,967 agents registered since 2023 would not have met three residential transactions in 2023–2025, though the rule also counts commercial, industrial and other deals.

Estimates of the effect differ. ERA's Eugene Lim, president of the Singapore Institute of Estate Agents, put the fall at 10 to 20 per cent; OrangeTee's Avril Lee said the rule "should not be viewed as a policy designed to reduce agent numbers". PropKaki's commentary on the announcement is three deals in three years.

PropKaki's copy of CEA's register and transaction record, as at 10 Oct 2026. A transaction is one agent's side of one deal; a room rental counts the same as a landed sale.

These are two different measures. CEA's median of about two residential deals a year covers every registered agent; PropKaki's averages cover only agents with a transaction, and every transaction type. Either way, an agency's average says little about any one agent. CEA's latest weeks are also under-counted, because it publishes about a month behind.

Most agencies are very small: on 1 January 2026, 924 of the 997 had 10 agents or fewer, and only five had more than 500. Each is licensed by CEA and listed on CEA's public register, with its licence number.

PropKaki's agency finder lists every agency with its registered salespersons and their recorded deals, from PropKaki's copy of CEA's register.

Inside the big agencies, many agents work in groups led by a senior agent: PNG at PropNex, Preeminent at ERA, Rex Tan Division at Huttons. Those groups publish their own sizes, often in the thousands, and the figures overlap because some groups contain others. They cannot be added up or checked against CEA's count.

• The largest groups and their dated claims: Singapore's biggest agent groups.
• What titles like Division Director or Group District Director say about team size: what property agent titles mean.
• How commission is shared between agency, group leader and agent: how commission splits work at the big agencies.

The agency count is official; the team count is a claim.

• One agent: the agent finder shows each salesperson's agency and CEA-recorded deals by property type, town and year. CEA's public register confirms the registration itself.
• One agency: the agency pages for PropNex, ERA, Huttons, OrangeTee and SRI, and every other agency in the agency finder.
• The market: the agent market overview shows where the agents and the deals are, by district, HDB town, property type and transaction type.

If you are an agent choosing where to work, PropKaki's guides on joining an agency and switching agencies cover the questions to ask, and what property agents earn covers the commission figures ERA and PropNex gave in August 2026.

What we used.

• Official counts: CEA's industry statistics (agents, agencies, agency size bands and the ten largest agencies, as at 1 January each year), read on 6 Nov 2026, with earlier years from archived copies of CEA's pages, MND's written answer to Parliament of 6 Feb 2017, and EdgeProp's report of CEA's 2018 figures. The five-agency shares are computed from those tables. The 1 July 2026 count is CNA's (29 Jul 2026).
• PropKaki's figures: PropKaki's copy of CEA's salesperson register joined to CEA's public transaction record, as at 10 Oct 2026, matched by agency licence number and salesperson registration number. A transaction is one agent's side of one deal, of any type; CEA publishes about a month behind, so the latest weeks are under-counted.
• Press figures (the median deals, the 2023–2025 shortfall, the 2027 rule, the estimates of its effect) are attributed in the text to The Straits Times and CNA, who report CEA's figures and the agencies' comments.

What we did not claim. We do not say how many agents will leave, rank agencies by quality, or show any agent's earnings. Team and group sizes are not CEA figures and are not counted here. Counts on different dates are shown side by side, not subtracted into a growth rate.

Read more about how PropKaki works with data on our methodology page. This page is for information only; it is not career, legal or financial advice.