How Much Is Property Agent Commission in Singapore?
No regulator sets commission rates here. It's negotiable, and most sellers pay 1–2% plus GST. Here's the honest breakdown of what agents charge, what's fair, and what you should get for the money.
The CEA position: no fixed rates
Start with the fact most agents won't lead with. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) does not fix, prescribe or publish guideline commission rates. There is no official rate, no minimum, no maximum. Whatever an agent quotes you is a commercial offer, and you are allowed to negotiate it.
What CEA does regulate is the paperwork around it:
- The rate must be agreed in writing, in a CEA Prescribed Estate Agency Agreement, before the agent does any work for you. No agreement, no work. If an agent starts marketing your home without one, that's a breach.
- Commission is paid to the agency, not the individual agent, and only after the transaction completes. Anyone asking for cash upfront or a personal bank transfer should be checked against the CEA Public Register.
- One agent cannot collect from both sides. The Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations prohibit acting for both buyer and seller in the same deal. If your agent also pockets a fee from your buyer, that is an offence, not a favour.
So the honest summary is: everything is negotiable, and the negotiation is normal. Agents who tell you "2% is the standard rate" are describing a habit, not a rule.
What the market actually charges in 2026
With that said, habits are strong, and most quotes you hear will fall in these ranges:
Source: market norms reported across agencies and industry guides, Jul 2026 · Rates exclude 9% GST · Updated Jul 2026
| Transaction | Who pays | Typical rate |
|---|---|---|
| HDB resale — selling | Seller | 1–2% of sale price |
| Resale condo — selling | Seller | 1–2% of sale price |
| Resale — buying with your own agent | Buyer | 0–1%often $0 via co-broke from the seller's fee |
| New launch — buying | Nobody | 0%developer pays the agent ~2–5% |
| Rental — landlord | Landlord | ½ month (1-yr lease) to 1 month (2-yr lease) |
Swipe to see the full table →
Add 9% GST if the agency is GST-registered, which the large ones are. And note the fixed-fee players: platforms offering to sell your flat for 1% or a flat dollar amount have real market share now. They're part of the honest picture, and I cover when they make sense below.
What that means in dollars
On a $700,000 flat, the market range looks like this:
Worked example, 9% GST included where applicable · Computed 17 Jul 2026
| Rate agreed | Commission | GST (9%) | You pay |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2% on $700,000 | $14,000 | $1,260 | $15,260 |
| 1% on $700,000 | $7,000 | $630 | $7,630 |
| For scale | 2% on a $2,000,000 condo is $40,000, or $43,600 with GST. Real money. So the right question isn't "how much" but "what does it buy". | ||
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What 2% should buy, vs what 1% usually buys
Price the service, not the percentage. Here's the honest split:
Valuation & pricing
Marketing & viewings
Negotiation & paperwork
A well-priced, well-marketed home typically sells for more than a badly handled one. The difference usually covers the fee several times over. Cheap becomes expensive when a listing goes stale or a seller negotiates against themselves.
When the cheaper option genuinely makes sense
I'd be insulting your intelligence if I pretended otherwise. A 1% or fixed-fee route can be the rational choice when all three of these are true:
- Your home is in a high-demand spot, near an MRT, in a town with more buyers than listings.
- Your price expectation already matches recent transactions, so the pricing work is mostly done.
- You have the time and temperament to run viewings, screen buyers, and hold your nerve in a negotiation.
Where sellers leave money on the table isn't usually the commission line. It's under-pricing off a portal estimate, over-pricing off a neighbour's headline and going stale, or conceding $20,000 in the last ten minutes of a negotiation because nobody was in their corner. If a cheaper route avoids all three, take it. If it doesn't, it wasn't cheaper.
Thinking of trying it yourself first? I've written the honest version of that too: selling your HDB flat without an agent.
How I charge, and what it covers
My rate is 1–2%, agreed in writing before we start, and it doesn't change mid-sale. For that you get the full-service column above: a valuation with comparables you can check, photography and listing copy you approve before anything goes live, viewings run around your family's routine, negotiation on your side of the table, and a written update every week even when the honest update is "nothing happened this week".
If you're comparing agents, compare plans, not percentages. And check the registration of everyone you talk to on the CEA Public Register, including me. My number is R055553G and I'm with PropNex Realty Pte Ltd L3008022J.
What past sellers say about how I work: testimonials. The selling process end to end: sell your HDB flat or sell your condo.
Five questions to ask any agent, including me
1. What's your rate, and exactly what does it cover? Get the scope in the Estate Agency Agreement, not in a WhatsApp message.
2. Show me the last three transactions you handled in my town. Not your agency's. Yours.
3. Who runs my viewings? "The team" sometimes means a junior who's never seen your flat.
4. What happens in week four if there's no offer? The answer tells you whether the first price was real or a bid for your listing.
5. Is your CEA registration current? Then check it yourself. It takes two minutes on the Public Register.
Common questions
Commission, asked and answered
Yes, always. CEA does not fix, prescribe or guideline commission rates, so every rate is a commercial agreement between you and the agency. The 1–2% you hear about is market convention, not law. Whatever you agree, it must be written into the CEA Prescribed Estate Agency Agreement before the agent starts work.
Often nothing, in practice. On a resale purchase, the buyer's agent is usually paid a share of the seller's commission through a co-broke arrangement. Where there is no co-broke on offer, some buyer's agents charge 0.5–1%, and that should be agreed in writing before you view anything. On new launches, buyers pay nothing; the developer pays the agent.
Because the developer pays. Developers budget agency fees of roughly 2–5% into their marketing cost, so a buyer who walks in with an agent pays the same price as one who walks in alone. If you are buying new launch, having your own agent costs you nothing extra.
After the transaction completes, and to the estate agency, not the individual salesperson. That is the CEA rule. If anyone asks for cash upfront or payment to a personal account, walk away and check their registration on the CEA Public Register.
If the agency is GST-registered, yes: 9% on top of the agreed fee. On a $14,000 commission that is $1,260. Ask at the start whether a quoted rate includes GST, so there are no surprises on the completion statement.
No. The Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations prohibit an agent from acting for both parties in the same transaction, and an agent who collects commission from the seller cannot collect any fee from the buyer. Each side gets its own representation. That protects you, so insist on it.
Get a valuation. I'll quote you my exact rate in writing.
No obligation either way. You'll get a valuation built on transacted sales, with the comparables shown, and my fee in writing before you decide anything. Compare it against anyone else's quote. That's how this is supposed to work.