HDB resale portal unlikely to cut out property agents

The listing service replaces just a small part of the many things a realty adviser can do.

The Housing & Development Board’s (HDB) Resale Flat Listing (RFL) service, launched in May, may encourage do-it-yourself (DIY) buying and selling amongst Singaporeans, potentially sidelining real estate agents. But some say the online portal replaces just a small part of the many things that an agent can do, which include screening out nuisance calls, conducting a house viewing, or handling no-shows. 

"The house-hunting process is the most tedious part of the search process,” Mark Lim, Division Associate Director, OrangeTee & Tie, AAG Division, told Singapore Business Review. “With the possibility of matching the seller and the buyer, it literally takes away the job of an agent quite drastically.”

The service, which allows flat owners or their agents to list flats for sale and complete resale transactions on the HDB flat portal, seeks to create a transparent and reliable marketplace for HDB flats.

HDB flats — housing estates built and managed by the Singapore government — are usually cheaper than condos, making them a better option for homebuyers who are on a budget. They are also eligible for state subsidies.

Lim said HDB’s online resale portal takes care of the property agent’s role of finding a property and matching the seller and buyer. For this reason, agents should try to add value to their service to stay in the game.

Property agents should really serve the interest of a client, have the right attitude, and ensure the selling objectives are met, he said. “We need to upgrade ourselves constantly to stay relevant.”

Lee Sze Teck, senior director of Data Analytics at Huttons Asia Pte Ltd, said the resale portal would have a minimal impact on property agents and won’t affect their role as a consultant.

“For straightforward cases where it is a simple buy-and-sell [transaction],, some buyers may choose to DIY, similar to the insurance industry where simple products can be purchased off the shelf,” he said.

"However, many cases involve much more,” he added, noting that divorce, extension of stay, and HDB Contra — a facility that lets you sell your flat and buy another at the same time — could complicate the process.

“It will be better for consumers to speak with a professional who can guide them.”

The resale portal, rather than replacing a realtor, probably just replaces a small part of the many things that an agent can do. An online portal can’t screen out nuisance calls, conduct a house viewing, handle no-shows, negotiate for hours, or tidy up a flat before the next viewers arrive. 

Real supply and demand

Lee said the portal could in fact allow agents to reach a bigger audience for their clients’ properties. "The free-to-use RFL may increase the exposure of the flat for sale to more potential buyers.”

Lim also expects the HDB listing service to make the supply and demand situation more transparent since a seller can’t use two agents to “test the market” or fail to remove the listing for a house that has been sold.

The portal also bars the listing of a flat that has not met the five-year minimum occupation period.

Though both Lim and Lee see the value of the online portal, they also cited the need to add features against potential problems.

An “auto-matching feature” could speed up the process once certain requirements are met, such as the price, size, unit level, or extension of stay, Lim said.

Lee, meanwhile, identified a problem in the portal's prompt for sellers if the listing price is more than 10% higher than the most recent transactions in an area. 

"The guide, whilst well-intended, may lead to sellers using that as a yardstick without due consideration to other aspects like age, condition of the flat, floor level, facing, size, and so on,” he said. “It may lead to an upward spiral in transacted prices.”

Despite these concerns, property agents see the portal as a tool to resolve dummy or duplicate listings, an issue that led to the establishment of the Alliance for Action (AfA) on Accurate Property Listings in 2021.

"The supply of genuine and qualified buyers is the greatest advantage of the portal,” Lim said.

"Because the HBD service automatically removes the listing for a flat that has been sold, “we can be sure that listings are valid and available,” he added.