Property Management Companies in Singapore: Who Manages the Most Estates, and What They Can't Do

BCA's register of management corporations is described as "a listing containing information on Management Corporations, their addresses and their Managing Agents" (data.gov.sg). Counting the managing agent each MCST names gives this table:

Source: BCA's MCST register on data.gov.sg, updated 29 July 2026, analysed by PropKaki. Accreditation from ASM's list for 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 and APFM's AMA (Registered) list, both read on 25 September 2026.

How to read it:

• Each company is counted as the register names it. Spelling variants of one name are merged, but companies that share a name are counted apart. Counted by name instead, the 2 Savills companies reach 175, the 2 Knight Frank companies 115, the 3 Newman companies 115 (Newman & Goh left out) and the 3 Landsfield companies 107: the top four stay the same, and places five to seven reshuffle.
• MCSTs and strata lots rank differently. Chambers Property Management Services is named by 168 MCSTs holding 17,660 lots; Knight Frank Property & Facilities Management by 110 holding 34,578. One manages many small estates, the other fewer, bigger ones.
• The register is a snapshot. An MCST that changed its managing agent after 29 July 2026 still shows the old one.

Count estates and you get one ranking; count homes and units and you get another. Neither tells you who does the job well.

Of the 3,698 MCSTs on BCA's register (updated 29 July 2026, with its 120 subsidiary management corporations left out, as in our guide to MCSTs):

• 2,836 (77%) name a managing-agent company, and they hold 85% of all 449,307 strata lots.
• 851 (23%) name none: the entry reads "NA", "NIL", "MCST", "N" or "-".
• 11 name a private individual; we count them but do not name them.

That lines up with BCA's own figure. Announcing the accreditation schemes in 2021, the Commissioner of Buildings said: "At present, there are more than 3,500 MCSTs in Singapore, with almost 75% engaging MAs to help in the day-to-day running of their estates" (BCA).

Size matters only at the very bottom:

Source: BCA's MCST register, updated 29 July 2026, analysed by PropKaki.

Above ten lots, 84% to 87% of MCSTs name a managing agent whatever their size. A blank is not proof that an estate has none: 40 of the 244 MCSTs with more than 500 lots show a blank, so treat a blank as possibly out of date.

Only the tiniest estates usually go without: above ten lots, size makes almost no difference.

Section 67 of the Building (Strata Management) Act 2004 sets the rule. An MCST "may, by instrument in writing, delegate to its managing agent" either "(a) all of its powers, duties and functions; (b) any one or more of its powers, duties and functions specified in the instrument; or (c) all of its powers, duties and functions except those specified in the instrument" (Singapore Statutes Online).

Two consequences follow:

• Its acts are the MCST's acts. Anything done under the delegation "has the same force and effect as if it had been done or suffered by the management corporation" (section 67(7)). BCA spells out the result: "any legal ramification that arises from acts and omissions done under such delegation will be applicable to both the MA and the MC" (BCA Strata Management Guide 6).
• The MCST never gives its powers away. "Despite any delegation made under this section, a management corporation ... may continue to exercise or perform all or any of the delegated powers, duties or functions" (section 67(6)).

What the job covers is written into the agreement between the two. BCA's guide says it "sets out the MC's powers, duties and functions that both the MC and the MA agree should be performed by the MA. These may pertain to areas on management of the development, administration and secretarial matters, accounting and finance matters, and operation and maintenance matters etc." For what the MCST itself must do, see our guide to MCSTs.

A managing agent has no powers of its own: every one is borrowed from the owners.

Reserved decisions. Section 67(2) bars an MCST from delegating "its power to make — (a) a delegation under this section; (b) a decision on any matter which may, in accordance with any provision of this Act or the by‑laws, only be made by the management corporation pursuant to a unanimous resolution, special resolution, 90% resolution, resolution by consensus or at a general meeting of the management corporation; or (c) a decision on any matter referred to in section 59" that the MCST has specified by resolution (Singapore Statutes Online).

Council elections. Under section 68(1), a managing agent "must not ... endeavour to persuade any person to give, or to dissuade any person from giving, the person’s vote (by proxy or in person) in any particular way at any election of members of the council". A managing agent that breaks it "shall be guilty of an offence" (section 68(3)). BCA adds that when an owner asks a managing agent for other owners' contact details to canvass for proxy votes, managing agents "are not permitted to provide contact details such as contact numbers or email addresses for such purposes" (BCA Strata Management Guide 6).

Its own proxies. "A vote by a proxy who is a managing agent is invalid if it would obtain or assist in obtaining a pecuniary interest for, or confer or assist in conferring any other material benefit on, the proxy" (section 68(2)).

The managing agent runs the estate; it gets no say in who runs the estate.

BCA's guide says that when selecting a managing agent, an MCST "may wish to consider the following non-exhaustive list of matters" (BCA Strata Management Guide 6):

• "tender price submitted with respect to the MC’s budget";
• "track record of managing similar developments";
• "accreditation with any industry association, if any";
• "head office support rendered to the site staff";
• "financial strength of the MA"; and
• "MA’s insurance coverage such as professional indemnity insurance".

It adds: "MCs should interview the key management personnel of the MA, and if possible, also the persons who would be deployed to the development". Three more checks come from the law and the registers:

• Conflicts. A managing agent related to an owner in the estate "must declare in writing the nature of the managing agent’s relationship prior to the managing agent’s appointment" (section 66(4), Singapore Statutes Online).
• Accreditation. Check the firm against ASM's and APFM's current lists (below).
• Letting or selling. If the firm will also find tenants or buyers for owners, check its CEA licence (below).

Then write it down. BCA wants the agreement to state the fee, the payment dates "and the wages of staff members stationed on site", and the recourse if service falls short, which "may include serving a warning letter, imposing liquidated damages or terminating the agreement at a specified time".

Choose on the people who will be on site, and put what you expect of them in the contract.

Section 66 of the Act sets all of this out, and our guide to MCSTs walks through it. In one line each: appointment is "by the management corporation by ordinary resolution" or by a council authorised at "the last preceding general meeting"; the appointment ends at "the conclusion of the third annual general meeting ... after the managing agent’s appointment", at the end of its agreed term or on termination, "whichever first occurs"; and termination is "in accordance with the terms of the appointment", either authorised "by ordinary resolution at a general meeting" or without one "if authorised by its subsidiary proprietors at the last preceding general meeting" (section 66, Singapore Statutes Online). BCA adds that "the MA’s performance must be reviewed at every annual general meeting" and, as good practice, that a council that will not re-appoint should give "at least 1 month’s notice".

What it costs. "The fees and expenses of a managing agent are fixed" by the MCST at a general meeting, or by the council where the owners have authorised it (section 66(3)). So the cost to your estate is a number the owners, or their council, approve, and it sits in the MCST's budget and the agreement. We publish no typical fee, because no official source does.

The fee is whatever the owners approve, so the general meeting is where you control it.

Who accredits. In 2021 BCA "recognised new accreditation schemes for managing agents introduced by the Association of Property and Facility Managers (APFM) and the Association of Strata Managers (ASM)", each holding "a Certificate of Recognition from BCA, which requires renewal every three years" (BCA). BCA's guide calls them "accreditation schemes ... administered by industry associations, which BCA recognises"; its footnote lists "Singapore Institute of Surveyors and Valuers (SISV), Association of Property and Facility Managers (APFM) and Association of Strata Managers (ASM)" among the accrediting bodies; and it says an MCST "may consider engaging an accredited MA" (BCA Strata Management Guide 6). So there is no "BCA-accredited" list as such: there are the associations' lists, which BCA recognises.

What it takes. Individuals "undergo a structured training program and pass an examination conducted by either APFM or ASM, and the BCA Academy"; firms need "sufficient number of staff accredited at the individual level", "professional indemnity insurance, and key management personnel who have relevant academic qualifications and working experience" (Guide 6). ASM renews an individual's status only with "No valid major complaints" and "the annual 8-hour CPD requirements" (ASM).

The lists, as read on 25 September 2026: ASM's "Accreditation term is 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027" and lists 20 firms (ASM); APFM's AMA (Registered) list has 29, in Categories A and B (APFM). Matched to the register, firms on either list are named by 1,727 MCSTs, 61% of those naming a company, holding 77% of their strata lots. The accreditation column of the top-ten table above shows which list each firm is on.

BCA reports that "MCSTs have reported encouraging satisfaction levels in the service performance of accredited MA firms and individuals" in a pilot study (BCA).

Accreditation is the one quality signal the registers give you. It is a floor, not a guarantee.

The Estate Agents Act 2010 defines estate agency work as work, in the course of business or for a fee, "in relation to the introduction ... of a third person who wishes to acquire or dispose of a property, or to the negotiation for the acquisition or disposition of a property", and work after that introduction or negotiation in relation to the deal (section 3(1), Singapore Statutes Online). It covers leases too: a "purchaser" "includes a prospective tenant" and a "vendor" "includes a prospective landlord". And "property" is any interest in land, which "includes any building or part of a building", so shops, offices and factories are covered as well as homes. CEA's own conduct manual applies to "property transactions involving residential, commercial and industrial properties" (CEA).

Any business doing that work needs a licence: "Any entity that conducts estate agency work ... is required to apply for an estate agent (EA) licence" (CEA).

So if the firm that manages your building also finds tenants or buyers for your unit, that second job is estate agency work. Some firms hold both roles under one name. These managing agents appear on BCA's register and, with salespersons, on CEA's register under the same company name:

Sources: BCA's MCST register (updated 29 July 2026) and PropKaki's copy of CEA's public register (verified 11 August 2026). Exact name matches only, so this is a floor: 6 more companies, each named by one MCST, also match, and a firm can hold its licence under a differently named company.

You can check any firm's licence on CEA's public register or with PropKaki's agency finder.

Ask which job a firm is doing for you: running your building, or letting your unit.

Matching each MCST's development postcode to PropKaki's condo, commercial and industrial directories splits the register like this:

Source: BCA's MCST register (updated 29 July 2026) matched to PropKaki's directories by postcode. "Commercial or mixed-use" includes estates where shops or offices share an MCST with homes: at least 100 of the 280 show homes, by their name, by a subsidiary management corporation or by private-home sales at the same postcode.

Commercial or mixed-use estates name a managing agent 65% of the time, against 85% for condos, but 129 of the 280 have ten lots or fewer, the size that usually goes without. Above ten lots the shares are 85% and 87%.

The firms named most often at those addresses:

And the largest single-use commercial strata developments that PropKaki's directory matches on the register, with their managing agent as listed and a link to each building's PropKaki page (price history and transactions):

Matched on postcode and the building's name; estates with any sign of homes, and two-tier MCSTs, are left out. The managing agent is the register's entry as at 29 July 2026.

To see who manages any other building, look up its row in BCA's "MCST information" dataset on data.gov.sg, or ask the MCST's management office. To browse buildings, start at PropKaki's commercial directory or the commercial and industrial listings finder.

A shop or office owner has an MCST and, usually, a managing agent too.

There is no official "big four". Two counts from BCA's register give two answers:

• By MCSTs named: Savills Property Management (169), Chambers Property Management Services (168), Ocean IFM (139) and Smart Property Management (Singapore) (127).
• By strata lots in those MCSTs: Savills Property Management (50,539), Knight Frank Property & Facilities Management (34,578), Ocean IFM (21,207) and Smart Property Management (Singapore) (21,082).

If you meant the biggest estate agencies (the firms that sell and let homes), that is a different list, taken from CEA's register of salespersons: see the agency table in our guide to Singapore's property laws.

BCA's own definitions: the MCST "consists of all SPs [subsidiary proprietors, the unit owners] of the estate and are empowered under the Building (Strata Management) Act ... to control and manage the common property", while managing agents "may be employed by an MCST to perform certain duties in respect of the management and maintenance of their strata-titled development" (BCA).

So when you read about a "management corporation" in a Singapore condo or strata building, that is the MCST; a "management company" usually means the managing agent it hires. Our guide to MCSTs explains the MCST side in full.

Owners own the decisions; the managing agent owns the to-do list.

Official rules. What a managing agent may do and how it is appointed, paid and replaced are from the Building (Strata Management) Act 2004 (sections 2 and 66 to 68) and the Estate Agents Act 2010 (sections 3 and 4) on Singapore Statutes Online, current as at 25 September 2026; BCA's Strata Management Guide 6 (April 2022, which still uses the Act's former name), BCA's condo living page (updated 14 September 2026) and its 2020 and 2021 releases on accreditation; CEA's licensing and conduct pages; and ASM's and APFM's accredited lists, all read on 25 and 26 September 2026.

Proprietary analysis. The rankings, shares and counts are PropKaki's analysis of BCA's MCST register ("MCST information") on data.gov.sg, as updated on 29 July 2026: 3,698 MCSTs, leaving out 120 subsidiary management corporations as our MCST guide does. Each MCST's managing-agent entry is counted as written, with spelling variants of one company merged and companies that share a name kept apart; entries reading "NA", "NIL", "MCST", "N" or "-" are counted as naming none, and 11 entries naming a private individual are counted but not shown. A few entries are developers, hotel or hospital operators and others running their own buildings; they are counted as the register lists them. Accreditation is matched by company name to the ASM and APFM lists. Development types come from matching each MCST's development postcode to PropKaki's condo, commercial and industrial directories, so they are PropKaki's classification, not BCA's. Counts of salespersons are from PropKaki's copy of CEA's public register, verified 11 August 2026. How we work: PropKaki methodology.

What we have not claimed: that any firm is better or worse than another (the number of estates a firm manages says nothing about its service), what any managing agent charges, or that an estate whose entry is blank has no managing agent. This is a practical explainer, not legal or financial advice.