Conveyancing for Buying a Home in Singapore
Most of the pressure in a purchase comes from dates that cannot move. Here is the sequence, what has to happen by when, and where we take it off your hands.
A purchase runs on dates that cannot be moved, and nearly all of the stress in one comes from that rather than from the law. Knowing the sequence in advance is most of the cure.
The Option to Purchase
You pay a fee, usually 1% of the price, and the seller grants you an exclusive right to buy at an agreed price within an agreed window.
This is a contract, not a formality, and it is the document worth taking advice on. Once you exercise it, typically with a further 4%, you are committed. If you then cannot complete, the deposit is generally forfeit.
Stamp duty
Buyer’s Stamp Duty is payable on every purchase. Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty may be payable on top, depending on your residency status and how many residential properties you already own.
The deadline is short. It is calculated at the outset of the matter rather than left to the end, because the penalty for late payment is not trivial and it is entirely avoidable.
The bank
If you are borrowing, the lender has its own requirements, its own solicitors and its own timetable. In practice this is the commonest source of delay in a purchase, and it is usually invisible to the buyer until something slips.
We deal with the lender directly and tell you when something is waiting on them rather than on you.
Completion
On the day, the balance moves, the keys are released and the transfer is registered. What you should feel on completion day is very little, which is the point.
How we help
How we help
Review the Option before you exercise it
This is the point at which advice is worth most and is most often skipped. Once exercised, the terms are the terms, and the deposit is at risk if you cannot complete.
Work out the stamp duty properly
Buyer's Stamp Duty, and Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty where it applies. The deadlines are short and the penalties for missing them are real, so this is calculated early rather than discovered late.
Deal with your bank and theirs
Loan documents, the mortgage, and the lender's own conditions. Most delays in a purchase are a bank waiting on something nobody told the buyer about.
Run the searches and the title
Confirming the seller can actually sell what they are selling, and that nothing is registered against the property that you would want to know about first.
Hold the deposit properly
In the firm's conveyancing account, under the rules that govern it. This matters more than it sounds and is one of the reasons to use a solicitor rather than an agent's template.
Complete and register the transfer
Funds moved, keys released, and the title registered in your name. You should hear from us on the day it is done, not a fortnight later.