Do you need a property agent to buy, sell or rent in Singapore?
No law requires it. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) writes of engaging an agent as something a buyer, seller, landlord or tenant may decide to do, publishes the standard contract templates and checklists for people who transact on their own, and sets the duties of an agent for those who engage one. An agent brings the market, the paperwork and a duty to act in your interest alone; the price is a negotiated commission. Whichever way you go, the money, the contract and the checks are the same.
What an agent must do for you
CEA's page on engaging a property agent sets out the duties of an appointed agent: to be professional and knowledgeable and act in your best interests; to seek your consent before advertising your property and declare any conflict of interest or referral fee; to represent you alone, since acting for both sides of one transaction is an offence; to update you on every offer and proposal and explain every document; and to go through your eligibility, CEA's checklists and the paperwork with you. For a seller or landlord the agent must verify the material facts in an advertisement, arrange viewings and pass on every offer and counter-offer. An agent may not handle the deal's money, from the option fee to the rent, and may not recommend moneylenders.
What you can do yourself
CEA publishes the documents a transaction needs, for anyone to use: standard contract templates for the option to purchase and the sale and purchase agreement of private residential property, tenancy agreement templates for HDB flats and private homes, and checklists for sellers, buyers, landlords and tenants, with and without an agent. CEA says the templates set a common standard that is fair to all parties, leave room to add or vary terms in their annexes, and make a first-time user aware of non-standard terms. The checks a buyer or tenant makes do not change: the agent's registration if one is involved, the counterparty's identity, the title, the stamp duty with the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore, and for a foreign buyer the rules of the Singapore Land Authority.
What an agent adds
Two things CEA's pages name. First the market: where two agents represent the two sides, which CEA calls co-broking, a seller's property reaches a wider pool of buyers and a buyer sees more options through the agents' networks. Second the process: an agent must be familiar with the procedures and forms, guide you through them, give you time to read before you sign and ensure you receive copies. For a rental involving a foreign tenant, CEA requires the agent to check and copy the passport and the pass of every tenant and occupier. The agent's role ends at the signed agreement and the handover; managing the property afterwards is not agency work.
If you engage one: what to settle first
CEA's advice comes to four steps: verify the agent on its Public Register by the phone number you are dealing with; agree the commission and write it into one of CEA's prescribed estate agency agreements, exclusive for one agency for up to three months or non-exclusive for several, asking whether GST applies; fill in the customer's particulars form the agent must collect; and pay every sum directly to the payee, with the commission going to the agency once the deal completes. If a dispute follows and you signed the prescribed agreement, CEA's Dispute Resolution Scheme offers mediation, or arbitration with a binding decision, which you may choose directly after writing to the agency. The ranked list of property agents on this site shows each agent's registration number and what each says they handle; the guide on property agent commission and the guide on checking an agent's registration go further.