Buying a new launch condo: from the VVIP preview to the ballot, the booking and the keys

The whole sequence, before the detail

A new launch runs to a script. Registration of interest opens weeks before anyone can walk through a showflat. The showflat then opens for a preview — the fortnight the marketing calls VVIP — during which an indicative price list circulates and buyers hand over a cheque as an expression of interest. On booking day, if there are more cheques than units in demand, a ballot sets the order in which people choose. The chosen unit is booked with a fee, an Option to Purchase is issued on the spot, and from there the timetable is set by law rather than by the sales gallery: the Sale and Purchase Agreement, the exercise of the option, stamp duty, then years of progressive payments to the Temporary Occupation Permit and, later, legal completion.

Two things to hold onto through all of it. Until the booking fee is paid, nothing is binding on either side — a cheque handed in at a preview is a queue ticket, not a purchase. And from the moment the option is issued, every deadline is short and the cost of missing one is written down.

1. 1

   Register, through an agent

   Weeks before the preview, a launch is marketed by agents — online, and with flyers on the street. You register with one, give your details, and get a viewing appointment. Costs nothing, commits nothing.

2. 2

   Preview day

   Expect a crowd. You are ushered into a tentage, given the agency's VIP sticker, and only then into the showflat. Indicative prices circulate.

3. 3

   The blank cheque

   If you like it, you hand over a cheque as an expression of interest — your ticket to the ballot, held, not banked. With your agent you prepare two or three unit choices, not one.

4. 4

   Get the loan approval

   Before the ballot, an in-principle approval from a bank fixes the quantum you can borrow. Without it you cannot book if your number comes up.

5. 5

   Ballot and sales day

   Usually about two weeks after the showflat first opens. If demand exceeds supply, a ballot orders the queue; you choose from what is left when your number is called, pay the booking fee, and receive the Option to Purchase.

6. 6

   S&P and exercise

   The developer delivers the Sale and Purchase Agreement; you have a fixed window to exercise by signing it and paying the balance of the downpayment.

7. 7

   Stamp duty

   Buyer's Stamp Duty and any Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty are due within fourteen days of exercising.

8. 8

   Progressive payments to TOP and completion

   Instalments follow the building: foundation, frame, walls, roof, services, roads, then the large payment at TOP and the last at completion.

Before the showflat: the work that decides the outcome

A launch does not sell itself to strangers; it is marketed through agents, online and with flyers outside MRT stations and malls, and the way in is to register with one of them. You give your name, contact and the size you are after, and you get a viewing appointment for the preview. Nothing about that registration commits you, and the agent who registers you is the agent who will walk you through the rest — which is worth choosing deliberately, because a good one prepares you for the ballot and a poor one prepares you for the sales pitch.

Everything that matters about affordability is settled before the preview, not at it. A bank's in-principle approval tells you what you can borrow under the rules — 55% of gross income for all debt at the 4% stress floor, a first bank loan capped at 75% of the price — and a launch is the worst place to discover the answer, because the booking fee is on the line the moment you commit. Get the approval first; it is free, it lasts a few weeks, and it turns the price list into a shortlist. It is also a condition, not a courtesy: on sales day, if your ballot number comes up, the developer expects you to book on the spot, and a buyer without an approved quantum in hand is a buyer who cannot.

Then the duty. A launch is a purchase like any other for stamp duty: Buyer's Stamp Duty in its bands on every unit, and Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty by who you are and what you already own — 20% for a citizen's second home, 60% for a foreigner. Both are due within fourteen days of exercising the option, in cash or CPF, and neither is part of the developer's price. Work them out before the preview so the cheque you write is for a unit you can complete.

Finally, the price. The land bid that produced the project is public long before the showflat — the government land sale result, the en-bloc price — and it puts a floor under what the developer must charge. A price list that sits far above the arithmetic of the land is a price list with room in it; one that sits close to it is not. The land-bids guide shows how to read that number.

The cheque, and what it is not

Preview day is a crowd by design. Expect to be held in a tentage outside, issued the agency's VIP sticker, and only then shown through the showflat in a stream of other people wearing the same sticker; the pace is part of the method. Afterwards, if you like what you saw, you will be asked for a cheque, sometimes called an expression of interest or a blank cheque. Think of it as the ticket to a concert: it gets you into the ballot, and it does nothing else. It is made out to the developer's project account — never to a sales agent, never in cash, and never to any other payee; the project account is a legal requirement that ring-fences buyers' money from the developer's other business. The cheque is held, not banked. It gives you a place in the ballot for sales day and it can be withdrawn at any point before you book, without penalty. This is also when your agent should sit down with you and prepare not one unit but two or three, in order — a first choice, and the stacks, floors or even types you would take if it is gone — because on sales day the choosing happens in minutes, and a buyer with one unit in mind and no second is the one who ends up in the thinking box.

What it does not do is fix a price, reserve a specific unit, or entitle you to anything if the ballot goes against you. Nor does the number of cheques a developer collects tell you what it will sell: a launch that reports thousands of cheques and sells a few hundred units on the first weekend was never a launch where thousands of people bought. Read the take-up rate, not the queue.

The ballot, and what you can and cannot do about it

Sales day is usually about two weeks after the showflat first opens. When cheques for a unit type outnumber the units, the developer ballots. Each buyer draws a number; on booking day buyers are called in that order and choose from what remains. A low number means the pick of the stacks and floors; a high number in a popular type means choosing between what nobody wanted, or walking away — which, at this stage, you are still free to do.

When your number is called, one of two things is usually true: the unit you came for is still there, or someone ahead of you took it. If you can decide on the spot, you book. If you cannot — the unit is gone, or the alternative is not one you had settled on — you are not made to choose in the queue. You are shown to a room the sales gallery calls the thinking box, and you can take the time there. From it you can come back out and ask to make a selection from whatever is still available, or you can leave without buying anything, and nothing is owed. That room is the last free exit in the process; everything after the booking fee has a price on it.

There is no honest way to improve your odds. One cheque per buying party is the practice, the draw is random, and an agent who says otherwise is describing something that is either untrue or not allowed. What you can do is prepare for a high number: decide in advance which alternative stacks, floors and even unit types you would accept, and at what price, so that being called late is a decision already made rather than a forced one made under time pressure in a crowded room.

The early-bird discount is real but it is marketing, not law. Developers commonly price the first weekend below the list they will use afterwards, because a strong first weekend is worth more to them than the discount costs. That is why booking day is crowded, and it is also why a buyer with a firm budget and a firm shortlist does better than one who arrives to see what happens.

Booking day: the option, and the deadlines it starts

When you book, the booking fee is paid and the developer issues an Option to Purchase. The Housing Developers Rules set the booking fee at not less than 5% and not more than 10% of the price, and in practice it is 5%. This is the first money that is not fully refundable.

The developer must deliver the Sale and Purchase Agreement, on the prescribed form, within fourteen days, and the option runs for three weeks after that delivery. To exercise it you sign the agreement and pay the balance of the 20% downpayment — 20% of the price less the booking fee already paid. If you do not exercise, the option lapses and the developer keeps 25% of the booking fee: with a 5% booking fee, that is 1.25% of the price, gone. The other 75% comes back to you within four weeks.

Since 28 September 2020 the Controller of Housing has forbidden two things that used to stretch this. A developer may not agree in advance to re-issue your option if you let it lapse, and may not re-issue an option to the same buyer for the same unit within twelve months of the earlier one expiring; you must be told this when the option is issued. The only route to more time is a formal extension of up to twelve weeks from the option date, with the Controller's consent and both parties agreeing. In plain terms: the three weeks is the three weeks. Do not book a unit you are not ready to exercise.

After exercise: how the payments follow the building

A new launch is bought on the progressive payment scheme, which is prescribed in the standard agreement and does not vary by developer. After the 20% at exercise, each instalment falls due within fourteen days of the developer's notice that a stage is complete, certified by its architect or engineer: 10% at the foundation, 10% at the reinforced concrete frame, 5% at the partition walls, 5% at the roof, 5% when the door and window frames, wiring, plastering and plumbing are in, 5% when the car park, roads and drains are done. Then 25% within fourteen days of the Temporary Occupation Permit and the notice that the building is connected and complete — the payment on which you collect keys. The final 15% is paid at legal completion, and where completion comes before the Certificate of Statutory Completion, most of it is held by the Singapore Academy of Law as stakeholder and released to the developer in stages as the certificate is issued and the defects period runs.

Your bank pays those stage instalments from the loan once your own 20% is used up, and your monthly repayment steps up each time the bank pays out — small at the foundation, most of the way there at TOP. That is the cash-flow shape people underestimate: three or four years of rising instalments before you can move in, alongside whatever you are paying to live somewhere else. Interest rates will have moved in that time, and a loan sized at today's package rate should be checked against the stress floor for a reason.

The developer must make good any defect that appears within the defects liability period of twelve months after you take vacant possession. Inspect at key collection, in writing, and again before the year is up; a defect reported on the last day is the developer's to fix, one reported on the day after is yours.

What to watch

The date of purchase for Seller's Stamp Duty is the date you exercise the option, not the date you collect keys. A buyer who exercises in 2027 and receives keys in 2030 has already served three years of the holding period on the day they move in. That is a genuine advantage of buying early in a launch, and one that the seller-stamp-duty guide explains.

Prices can move between preview and launch, and again between phases; the indicative list at the preview is exactly that. Strata area on the price list includes balconies, planters and any private enclosed space, which is why the same psf can buy noticeably different rooms in two units. And a showflat is the developer's best case: the ceiling heights, the finishes and the light are real, the furniture and the absence of neighbours are not.

Deferred payment schemes, where instalments are pushed out for a year or more, exist only for completed projects with unsold units; a project still under construction is sold on the progressive scheme above, and any offer that sounds otherwise deserves a careful read of the actual agreement. Finally, insist on seeing the developer's sale licence and the standard form: both are public, both are prescribed, and any variation to the form needs the Controller's approval in writing.

Common questions

What is a VVIP preview for a new launch?

The period, usually about two weeks, between the showflat first opening to buyers who registered through an agent and the ballot on sales day. You get a viewing appointment, are ushered through a tentage with the agency's VIP sticker, see the showflat and the indicative price list, and hand in a blank cheque as your ticket to the ballot. It is a marketing phase; nothing is binding until a booking fee is paid and an Option to Purchase issued.

How does the ballot work at a condo launch?

On sales day, about two weeks after the showflat opens, when cheques for a unit type exceed the units available, buyers draw numbers and are called in that order to choose from what remains. The draw is random; one cheque per buying party is the practice. Have your bank's in-principle approval and two or three unit choices ready. A high number means choosing late, going to the thinking box to decide, or walking away, which is still free at that point.

How much is the booking fee and can I get it back?

The Housing Developers Rules set it between 5% and 10% of the price; 5% is the norm. If you do not exercise the option, the developer keeps 25% of it — 1.25% of the price on a 5% fee — and refunds the rest within four weeks.

How long do I have to exercise the Option to Purchase?

The developer must deliver the Sale and Purchase Agreement within fourteen days of the option, and you then have three weeks to exercise by signing it and paying 20% of the price less the booking fee. Since September 2020 a developer cannot promise to re-issue an option or re-issue one to the same buyer for the same unit within twelve months; only a formal extension of up to twelve weeks with the Controller's consent is possible.

When do I pay stamp duty on a new launch?

Within fourteen days of exercising the option — Buyer's Stamp Duty in its bands, plus Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty if it applies to you. It is payable in cash or CPF and is not part of the developer's price or the 20% downpayment.

What is the progressive payment schedule?

After the 20% at exercise: 10% at foundation, 10% at the concrete frame, 5% at partition walls, 5% at roofing, 5% at frames, wiring, plastering and plumbing, 5% at car park, roads and drains, 25% at TOP, and the final 15% at completion, part of which is held by the Singapore Academy of Law as stakeholder until the Certificate of Statutory Completion and defects period. Each is due within fourteen days of the developer's certified notice.