PROPCAFE™ Guide : Buying a Singapore Property? The OTP

Although our property café usually serves ‘local beverages’, we do at times provide our ‘customers’ some taste of ‘Nanyang’, from the Lion City, Singapore.

So you decide to hunt for an under construction Singapore private property, and well you’ve come to a right place, let us give you a quick guide on buying a Singapore Property.

Capital Requirement

For those who do not have outstanding loan from banks, loan to value is 80%, so you need 20% (in the form of cash, or CPF) and approximately 3% of property price for stamp duty payment to the tax authority and SGD3-4k for legal fees

Therefore, you need around 25% cash up front, before going ‘shopping’.

Booking

When you have decided your unit, 5% cash, yes, cash only, (not even credit card) of the purchase price is required to sign the OTP, option to purchase.

A Standard Option to Purchase

The developer is required to use the standard form of Option to Purchase prescribed under the Singapore Housing Developers Rules in the sale of the units in a licensed housing project. The developer is required to seek approval from the Controller of Housing for any change to be made to the standard Option to Purchase. The standard Option to Purchase cannot be amended even by mutual agreement between the buyer and developer unless approval is given by the Controller of Housing.

Some of the key things to note in the standard Option to Purchase are:

•           Name of developer

•           The Housing Developer’s Licence Number

•           Name of project account bank

•           Name of buyer

•           The expiry date of the option

•           Description of the property (address, tenure)

•           Purchase price

•           Payments required and the amount to be refunded if the intending purchaser decides not to exercise the option to purchase

•           Special Conditions

•           Signed by an authorized person from the developer

Validity Period of Option

The developer is required within 14 days from the date of the Option, to deliver the Sale & Purchase Agreement in duplicate and the original or copies of the title deeds to the purchaser or his lawyer for review. The option is valid for 3 weeks from the date of delivery to the purchaser or his lawyer of these documents.

 Process to Exercise Option

Within the 3 weeks validity period, the intending purchaser may exercise the Option to Purchase by doing all of the following:

 •           Sign all the copies of the Sale and Purchase Agreement;

•           Return all copies of the signed agreement to the developer; and

•           Pay to the developer the balance down payment (15% of the purchase price within the 8 weeks period from the signed off OTP date)

Non-Exercise of Option

If OTP is not exercised before it expires, the developer will be entitled to forfeit 25% of the booking fee, whether the payment for the booking fee has been made (e.g. cheque bounced). The other 75% of the booking fee will be refunded to the purchaser. Thereafter, the developer can sell the property to any other interested party.

 Let’s take a break for now, stay tune and we will share more on, property loan, progressive payment, interest, stamp duty and the latest episode of Control Measure, CM7.