Business

Wednesday February 15, 2012

CEA says it will assist buyers and sellers of HDB


SINGAPORE: One in 10 Housing Board (HDB) resale transactions last year was done without the involvement of property agents, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan revealed in his blog.

He added that the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), as part of its ongoing consumer education efforts, would help home owners better understand their rights if they opted to act without agents.

He noted that while there had been suggestions to prohibit real estate agents from handling HDB resale transactions as well as ban do-it-yourself (DIY) resale deals, he did not think it was appropriate to do either.

The HDB already provides DIY resale checklists of requirements such as eligibility to buy or sell and financing. Industry experts said that while they had not observed a discernible DIY trend, it was not uncommon for a buyer or seller to want to complete at least part of the transaction without an agent.

Buyers and sellers said they chose to go agent-free to avoid paying the agent's commission usually about 1% of the transaction price for buyers and 2% for sellers.

Nicholas Mak, head of research at SLP International, said going DIY was not as easy as it seemed because there was a lot of unfamiliar paperwork. For example, sellers have to submit a financial plan for the purchase of their next flat.

He said it was more common for people to find a buyer or seller and then ask an agent to do the paperwork.

An example is Kumar Suresh, 39, who is helping his sister to sell her Jurong West three-room flat. Though he plans to seal the deal by himself, he intends to get his agent to go through the paperwork as the agent would be more familiar with it.

“Even with him doing the paperwork, I can save up to S$5,000. By dealing with the buyer myself, I can also decide what is a reasonable price rather than having an agent who might coax me into accepting a figure,” said the youth worker.

Vera Chua, a business owner in her 30s, is selling her four-room flat in Tiong Bahru without an agent. “I'm doing it to save on the agent's commission and learn how the process works so I can use the skills in future.” ANN/Straits Times

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