Kaeden Ong王天财
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Agent Commission Singapore: What Sellers, Buyers and Landlords Pay

Agent handing signed property agreement

Commission is the first question almost every owner asks me, usually before we have even talked about price. So here is the plain version. In Singapore, sellers typically pay their agent 2% of the sale price, buyers who engage their own agent typically pay around 1%, and landlords typically pay one month's rent on a two-year lease. GST of 9% sits on top if the agency is GST-registered.

None of those numbers is set by law, and any agent who tells you otherwise is guessing. The Council for Estate Agencies is explicit: "There are no fixed commission rates nor prescribed guidelines on commission amounts." They are market conventions, they are negotiable, and they are only enforceable once written into a signed estate agency agreement before marketing begins.

One thing has changed recently, and most online guides still have it wrong — I still correct it in almost every first meeting. Since 1 July 2024, the industry has moved toward each agent collecting from the client they actually represent. If you are a buyer or a tenant with your own agent, the old assumption that "the other side pays" no longer holds.

At a Glance: Agent Commission Rates in Singapore

Transaction Typical commission Who pays
HDB resale — seller's side 2% of sale price Seller
HDB resale — buyer's side 1% of purchase price Buyer, if they engage an agent
Private condo resale — seller's side 2% typical; 3–4% on hard-to-move or niche units Seller
Private resale — buyer's side Around 1%, negotiated Buyer, if they engage an agent
Landed resale 2% and up, depending on complexity Seller
New launch condo Paid out of the developer's marketing budget Developer
Rental, 2-year lease 1 month's rent Landlord
Rental, 1-year lease 0.5 month's rent Landlord
Rental — tenant's own agent 0.5 to 1 month's rent Tenant, if they engage an agent

Two rules cut across every row. First, every figure is a starting point for discussion, not a tariff. Second, 9% GST applies only if the agency is GST-registered — most established agencies are, so assume it applies until told otherwise, and ask whether the quote you have been given is inclusive or exclusive.

Key Takeaways

Point Details
No legal rate exists CEA sets no commission rate and publishes no guideline percentage. What you pay is negotiated, and only binding once signed.
The working benchmarks 2% for sellers, ~1% for buyers with their own agent, one month's rent on a two-year lease.
Buyers now pay more often Since 1 July 2024, agencies covering 90%+ of salespersons agree each agent collects from their own client.
GST is 9%, conditionally Charged only by GST-registered agencies. On a S$1.5m sale at 2%, that is S$2,700 you should see coming.
One agent, one side CEA treats collecting from both parties as an offence. Co-broking is the lawful alternative.
Exclusive means three months CEA's prescribed exclusive agreement caps at three months per agreement. Longer means a non-standard contract.

Table of Contents

How Commission Is Regulated in Singapore

There is no government-set commission rate here, and there never has been. CEA deliberately leaves pricing to competition. What CEA does regulate is conduct and documentation.

Four rules shape how commission works in practice:

  • Registration is checkable. Every agent handling your transaction must hold a valid CEA registration. You can verify a name and registration number on CEA's public register in under a minute, and you should, before you sign anything.
  • No agent collects from both sides. CEA's position is blunt: "Property agents cannot collect commission from more than one party in the same transaction, as doing so is an offence." It adds that if your agent collects from you, they cannot also take a commission or co-broking fee from the other party or the other party's agent — even if they helped that party with paperwork.
  • The agreement is the fee. Terms live in CEA's Prescribed Estate Agency Agreement. An exclusive appointment under the prescribed form runs a maximum of three months; a non-exclusive appointment has no fixed period. A verbal quote or an email summary is not the same thing.
  • Conflicts must be declared. CEA's codes of conduct require agents to disclose conflicts of interest upfront rather than after the fact.

On GST: the rate is 9%, and a GST-registered agency must add it to the agreed commission. A small unregistered agency will not charge it. Registration status, not the agent's preference, decides.

Pro tip: Ask two or three agents what they would charge before appointing anyone. Quotes vary more than most sellers expect, and the conversation tells you a lot about how each agent thinks about your property.

The 2024 Change Most Guides Still Miss

On 1 July 2024, the SEAA Best Practice Guide for Co-broking Commission took effect. Fifty-seven agencies signed the memorandum of understanding, including ERA, PropNex, Huttons, OrangeTee and SRI — together representing over 90% of registered salespersons in Singapore. By February 2025 that had grown to 70 agencies.

The principle is one sentence: each agent collects from the client they represent. The seller's agent bills the seller. The buyer's agent bills the buyer. The landlord's agent bills the landlord, the tenant's agent bills the tenant.

Before this, a buyer's agent typically took a share of the seller's commission, which created an obvious problem — the person negotiating hardest on the buyer's behalf was paid out of the seller's pocket, and the harder they pushed the price down, the smaller their own fee. The guide removes that.

Two caveats worth knowing. The guide is voluntary; agents are not penalised for not following it, and older-style co-broking splits still happen. And the duty to co-broke itself is unaffected — an agent must still cooperate with the other side's agent whether or not any fee-sharing is agreed.

What this means for you: if you are buying or renting and you want your own representation, budget for it. That is now the normal arrangement, not an unusual one.

Seller's Commission by Property Type

Luxury condo exterior with greenery

Two percent is the anchor across most residential resale, and in fifteen years I have rarely seen a good reason to move far from it without one. Where transactions move away from it, there is usually a reason.

  • HDB resale: 2% is standard. Fast-moving flats in high-demand towns occasionally transact lower, particularly where the agent expects a quick sale with minimal marketing spend.
  • Private condo resale: 2% is typical. Rates of 3% or more appear on units that are genuinely hard to sell — unusual layouts, ageing developments, oversupplied stacks — where the marketing effort and holding period are materially higher.
  • Landed property: 2% and up. Landed buyers are a smaller, slower pool, valuation is far less formulaic than for a condo stack, and the marketing runway is longer. See the landed property guide for how that plays out in practice.
  • New launch: the seller is the developer, and the developer pays. As a buyer you pay nothing to your agent on a new launch, which is why using one costs you nothing.

Three things actually move the number. Urgency — a seller closing in six weeks for an upgrading deadline has less leverage than one who can wait. Marketing intensity — professional photography, video, staging and paid portal placement are paid for by the agent upfront, out of the commission. Exclusivity — an exclusive appointment concentrates the agent's spending on one listing, which is why exclusive terms and open-listing terms are priced differently.

Pro tip: If an agent proposes an exclusive appointment, read the post-termination clause. Most exclusive agreements keep you liable for commission if you later sell to a buyer that agent introduced during the term. That is reasonable — but know the window before you sign, not after you have found a buyer yourself.

Do Buyers Pay Agent Commission?

The honest answer I give buyers in 2026 is: if you engage your own agent, expect to pay them, usually around 1%.

  • Buyer with own agent: around 1% of purchase price, paid by you, under the post-2024 best practice. Agree it in writing before viewings start.
  • Buyer using the seller's agent: you pay nothing, but you are also not represented. That agent's duty runs to the seller. They can show you the unit and handle paperwork; they cannot negotiate against their own client for you.
  • Legacy co-broking: some transactions still split the seller's commission between two agents. This happens, it is lawful, and it is becoming less common.
  • New launch: you pay nothing. The developer funds the agent. There is no financial reason to view a showflat unrepresented.

Whichever applies, get a short written buyer's agreement naming the fee, when it is triggered, and what the agent is actually doing for you. That single page is what prevents a disputed invoice after the Option is exercised.

Rental Commission: Who Pays and How Much

Rental commission payment responsibility comparison diagram

Rental commission is priced in months of rent, not percentages, and it scales with lease length.

  1. One-year lease, landlord's agent only: landlord pays half a month's rent. Tenant pays nothing.
  2. Two-year lease, landlord's agent only: landlord pays one month's rent. Tenant pays nothing.
  3. Both parties represented: each side pays their own agent under the current best practice. A tenant's agent typically charges half to one month's rent depending on lease length.

There is one long-standing convention worth knowing. On lower-rent units — the rough dividing line in the market has sat around S$3,500 a month — the landlord's agent has traditionally kept the full fee rather than sharing it, and a tenant wanting their own agent pays that agent directly. On higher-rent units, splitting was more common. Post-2024 this distinction matters less, because the default is now that each side pays their own agent regardless of rent level.

Landlords have more negotiating room than they use. A strong corporate tenant, a longer lease, or a commitment to hand the agent the renewal in two years' time are all fair things to raise when the fee is being set. Tenants should simply ask, before the first viewing, whether they are expected to pay anything — in a straightforward landlord-agent rental, the answer is usually no.

Working Out the Actual Dollar Amount

Sale commission is the sale price multiplied by the rate, plus 9% GST if the agency is registered. Rental commission is monthly rent multiplied by the months agreed.

Scenario Commission With 9% GST
HDB resale, S$650,000 at 2% S$13,000 S$14,170
Condo resale, S$1,500,000 at 2% S$30,000 S$32,700
Landed resale, S$3,800,000 at 2% S$76,000 S$82,840
Buyer's agent, S$1,200,000 at 1% S$12,000 S$13,080
Rental, S$3,500/month, 1-year lease S$1,750 S$1,907.50
Rental, S$5,000/month, 2-year lease S$5,000 S$5,450

Commission is rarely the biggest line item in a sale, though. Outstanding loan, CPF refund with accrued interest, resale levy and legal fees usually matter more to what actually reaches your account. Run all of it through the sale proceeds calculator before you settle on an asking price, so you are negotiating from a real net figure rather than a gross one.

How to Negotiate Agent Commission

The negotiating window is before the estate agency agreement is signed. I would rather have that conversation openly at the first meeting than have it resurface at closing. After that, the number is the number.

Five questions to ask at the first meeting:

  1. What is included in this fee — photography, video, staging, floor plans, paid portal placement? Ask for the marketing budget in dollars, not adjectives.
  2. Is the rate GST-inclusive or GST-exclusive?
  3. Is this an exclusive or non-exclusive appointment, and for how long?
  4. What triggers payment — exercise of the Option to Purchase, or completion?
  5. If I find a buyer myself during the term, what do I owe?

Three things that should end the conversation:

  • Refusal to put the fee or the appointment type in writing.
  • A "guaranteed" sale price. No agent controls the market; anyone promising a number is managing you, not your property.
  • Any suggestion they can represent both you and the other party. That is not a grey area under CEA rules.

If you want to negotiate down, trade something back rather than simply asking. A shorter exclusivity term, a capped marketing spend, or a flat fee instead of a percentage on a very high-value property are all reasonable structures. A tiered fee — base rate up to your target price, higher rate on everything above it — aligns the agent with the outcome you actually want.

Why the Lowest Quote Is Rarely the Cheapest Outcome

Commission comes out of the sale price, so it is tempting to treat it as the one cost you fully control. The arithmetic is less flattering than it looks.

On a S$1.5 million condo, cutting the fee from 2% to 1.5% saves S$7,500 before GST. But the commission funds the campaign — the photography, the video, the portal placement that determines how many qualified buyers ever see the listing. A thinner campaign means fewer viewings, fewer competing offers, and less pressure on the buyer to move. If it costs you even 1% on the final price, that is S$15,000 — double what you saved.

This is not an argument that expensive agents are better. It is an argument to ask what the fee buys and to compare campaigns rather than percentages. An agent who can show you their marketing plan line by line is easier to judge than one quoting a number in isolation.

How I Structure Fees

I am Kaeden Ong 王天财, an ERA top 1% award winning achiever, and I have spent over 15 years on residential and commercial transactions across Singapore — HDB resale flats, condos, landed homes, new launches, and commercial units — as an Associate Division Director with ERA, with the Asia Pacific Elite Award and multiple Millionaire Achiever recognitions along the way.

The commission conversation happens at the first meeting, not halfway through a negotiation. I tell you the rate, what the marketing budget within it is, and what I am doing for it: a full market analysis before we set an asking price, a marketing campaign built for that specific property type, direct negotiation with buyers and their agents, and management of the transaction through to completion.

Every engagement runs on a signed CEA Prescribed Estate Agency Agreement, with GST treatment stated on the face of it so nothing is ambiguous at closing. Before you commit to anything, I will run your numbers through the sale proceeds calculator so we are discussing a real net figure, not a percentage in the abstract.

Get a Clear Commission Breakdown First

Kaedenproperty

Before you sign with anyone, get the numbers in front of you. The consultation is free and carries no obligation: a valuation, a marketing plan for your property, a full fee breakdown, and an estimate of your net proceeds. Commission only applies on a completed sale, purchase or rental.

If you are weighing an HDB resale, a private condo sale or a landed listing, book a session through the seller services page and get a straight answer on fees before you sign with anyone.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is there a standard agent commission rate in Singapore?
No. CEA states plainly that there are no fixed commission rates and no prescribed guidelines on commission amounts. What exists is market convention — around 2% for sellers, around 1% for buyers with their own agent, one month's rent on a two-year lease. Every figure is negotiable and should be in a signed agreement before the agent starts work.

Who pays the agent commission when selling an HDB flat?
The seller pays their own agent, typically 2% of the sale price plus GST if the agency is GST-registered. On a S$650,000 flat that is S$13,000, or S$14,170 with GST. The buyer does not pay the seller's agent. If the buyer has their own agent, the buyer pays that agent separately, usually around 1%.

Do buyers pay agent commission in Singapore?
Increasingly, yes. Since 1 July 2024, agencies covering more than 90% of registered salespersons have agreed that each agent collects from the client they represent. A buyer with their own agent should expect to pay that agent directly. New launch buyers are the exception — the developer pays.

Do I have to pay GST on top of agent commission?
Only if the agency is GST-registered, in which case 9% is added. Most established agencies are. Ask whether a quoted rate is inclusive or exclusive before you sign.

Can one agent represent both the buyer and the seller?
No. CEA treats collecting commission from more than one party in the same transaction as an offence, and an agent cannot take a fee from you plus a co-broking fee from the other side. Co-broking, with an agent on each side, is the lawful arrangement.

When is agent commission paid?
Usually on completion, but the trigger varies and must be stated in the agreement. Some agreements make the fee payable when the Option to Purchase is exercised rather than at completion, which matters if a deal collapses in between.

How long can an exclusive agency agreement last?
CEA's prescribed exclusive agreement runs a maximum of three months per agreement, renewable by agreement. An agent asking you to sign an exclusive appointment for six or twelve months is not using the CEA template.

Sources

Commission figures quoted here reflect prevailing market practice observed across Singapore transactions in 2026. They are not rates set or endorsed by CEA, and your own agent's fee is a matter for negotiation between you.

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