Housing developer licence Singapore: what to check first

In Singapore, a housing developer needs a sale licence to sell uncompleted residential projects of more than four units. URA’s pages also require it to open a project account for each project, to erect show units under the Housing Developers (Show Unit) Rules and, before it issues any option to purchase, to screen prospective purchasers against publicly available lists. This guide pairs each rule with its URA page and with what you can ask to see before you pay a booking fee.

URA’s pages say little about the booking fee itself: they say when it is paid and what it buys, and none of the pages we read gives an amount, a cap or a refund rule (details below). The option’s own terms are in our option to purchase guide, so this guide does not repeat them. It is general information, not legal advice.

What do URA’s pages say about a booking fee?

Two of the pages we read mention it:

• The glossary (17 June 2026): “A unit is considered sold when the developer has given the purchaser the option to purchase, after the purchaser pays a booking fee.”
• The buying property page (29 June 2026): the developer “is required to provide you with a set of mandatory information on the housing project and unit before accepting the booking fee from you”, and if you decide to proceed after reviewing it, “you will then pay a booking fee for the issue of an Option to Purchase (OTP)”.

The other URA pages we read, including the three circulars, do not mention a booking fee. No page states an amount, a cap or a refund rule, so those terms are in your own option. Our reading, not URA’s wording: the glossary lists the sale licence and building plan approval as pre-requisites for sale and counts a unit as sold once an option is given, so both should be in place before an option is handed to you.

What does a sale licence let a developer do?

URA’s housing developers page (last updated 11 June 2026) says a housing project of more than four units must comply with the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act and its Rules, and names two licences. A sale licence allows a developer to commence construction works and sale of units after it has approval from all relevant authorities, including building plan approval. A no-sale licence allows construction works only. Our reading: a developer holding only a no-sale licence is not licensed to sell yet.

The page says its licence validity link “allows you to check if a developer holds a valid housing developer’s licence”, and it also links the criteria for a sale and no-sale licence. We did not open either, so we can say both exist, not what they show or require.

What is a developer’s project account?

The same page says: “You are required to open and maintain a Project Account with a financial institution for each project.” It adds that depositing purchase moneys and loans into the account, and withdrawing money from it, are regulated under the Housing Developers (Project Account) Rules. It does not say what withdrawals the Rules allow, and we could not open the Rules (Singapore Statutes Online is blocked on our network) or the “key pointers” PDF URA links, so we do not describe them.

Our suggestion, not URA’s: ask the developer to confirm in writing how the payments you are asked to make are handled under those Rules, and ask your lawyer to explain the answer. Our payment schedule guide sets out what URA and CPF say about the payments, with its stage percentages unverified.

What must a show unit meet?

Show units must be erected in accordance with the Housing Developers (Show Unit) Rules, and on completion of a show unit the developer must submit a declaration that the show units erected comply with the rules (housing developers page). URA’s buying property page (29 June 2026) adds that developers have to ensure that the plans and models displayed, and the show units erected, are accurate and in accordance with the approved building plans.

Neither page lists the Rules’ requirements item by item, and we did not open the show unit guidelines PDF. Our showflat versus renovation guide covers one rule that reaches into the gallery, the balcony-screen mock-up, our floor plan guide shows how to read the plan you are given, and questions beyond the showflat covers what a viewing needs besides the show unit.

What can URA do to a developer with severe defects or safety breaches?

On 22 May 2026 a circular signed for the Permanent Secretary (National Development), URA and BCA (URA/COH/Circular-2026-01) set out new measures, effective 22 May 2026, aimed at what it calls errant developers. Under the Land Sales Disqualification Framework, developers with “severe regulatory non-compliances affecting safety”, or “consecutive projects with major defects”, may be disqualified from land sales for sites with residential components for up to five years. Under the Sales Suspension Framework, developers with severe regulatory non-compliances affecting safety and/or projects with major defects may be placed on a sales suspension list for up to five years, with a no-sale licence condition on their future unlaunched projects for up to five years.

The current position is on URA’s framework page, which carries “Last updated on 29 September 2026”. When we read it on 17 October 2026 it said: “There are currently no developers and/or individuals disqualified from participating in land sales or suspended of sales privilege under the framework.” The page gives no separate “as at” date for the list, so look again on the day you pay. Three limits:

• Our reading: an empty list means no one is named under this framework. It is not a rating of any developer or project.
• The pages we read describe the suspension in terms of “future unlaunched projects”; we did not find a statement about a project already on sale.
• The framework page covers land launched for tender or sale by Ministries, Organs of State, Departments and Statutory Boards on or after 22 May 2026, and excludes private land sales such as en bloc sales. The circular limits major defects to “defects which developers have been given sufficient and reasonable notice, on or after 22 May 2026, to rectify”; we did not find it saying how earlier safety non-compliances are treated.

What does URA expect a developer to check about you before issuing an option?

URA’s page on preventing money laundering, proliferation financing and terrorism financing (last updated 7 July 2026) applies to housing and non-residential projects of more than four units. Its developer duties include notifying purchasers, in a prescribed form, of the documents and information needed for customer due diligence, and screening purchasers against lists of terrorists, terrorist entities and designated individuals. Its United Nations Act subsection says: “You are required to screen prospective purchasers against publicly available lists before the issue of any Option to Purchase.”

Our reading: being asked for documents or details before you are given an option fits these duties. The page does not say what a developer may ask for, and we did not open the guidelines it links.

Circular 2025-01 (30 June 2025) set out amendments to the Acts and Rules that, it says, take effect on 1 July 2025. Paragraph 3(d) clarifies that persons convicted of money laundering (ML), proliferation financing (PF) and terrorism financing (TF) offences, domestically and overseas, will not be granted a housing developer’s licence. The amendment on identifying the person a purchaser is acting for is covered in our option to purchase guide.

Can you see a developer’s quality record?

A URA circular of 19 September 2017, listed under archived circulars (URA/COH/Circular-2017-02), encouraged developers to give CONQUAS scores and Quality Mark (QM) ratings for private residential projects completed by them and their related corporations in the past five years in their sales brochure, project website and Form 3 (Item G – Track Record of Housing Developer). It said BCA had launched an interactive Quality Portal for comparing them against the industry average, and that URA was preparing legislation to mandate the information, “targeted for implementation in 2018”.

We cannot tell from the pages we read whether disclosure is now mandatory: the circular is archived and we did not open any legislation. URA’s 2026 circular lists “public disclosure of developers’ CONQUAS performance to help home buyers make informed decisions” among measures BCA and URA say they have put in place over the years. Our reading: some form of disclosure exists today, but that sentence does not say where it sits or whether it is compulsory. We could not open BCA’s site, so we cannot confirm what the Quality Portal shows today.

Eight checks to make before you pay a booking fee

This list is our own suggestion, not a URA checklist; each line names the URA page it rests on. Copy it into your research file. Lines 1 and 8 depend on tools we could not open, so make those checks yourself.

• 1. Sale licence. Ask the developer to confirm in writing that this project holds a sale licence, then use the licence validity tool URA links. Not opened by us, so we cannot say whether it shows the licence type or the project. (housing developers page, 11 June 2026; glossary, 17 June 2026)
• 2. Building plan approval. Ask whether the approval that the glossary lists beside the licence as a pre-requisite for sale is in place. (glossary, 17 June 2026)
• 3. Mandatory information. Ask for it before you pay; URA says the developer must give it before accepting the booking fee. Our option to purchase guide covers the forms. (buying property page, 29 June 2026)
• 4. Project account. Ask how the payments you are asked to make are handled under the Project Account Rules. (housing developers page, 11 June 2026)
• 5. Show unit. Ask for the plan of your own unit and note what the show unit has that the plan does not. (housing developers page, 11 June 2026; buying property page, 29 June 2026)
• 6. Money-laundering notice. Ask for the prescribed form listing the documents the developer needs from you. (prevention of money laundering page, 7 July 2026)
• 7. Sanctions list. Open the framework page on the day you pay; on 17 October 2026 it said none was currently listed. (framework page, “Last updated on 29 September 2026”)
• 8. Quality record. Ask whether the developer gives CONQUAS scores and QM ratings for projects completed in the past five years, and where. A 2017 circular only encouraged this; we could not confirm whether it is mandatory now. Not opened by us: BCA’s Quality Portal. (circular 2017-02, 19 September 2017, archived)

Planning around the site is a separate check: see how to search URA’s proposed Master Plan amendments. Decide which checks matter for your purchase before the appointment: our household brief guide starts from journeys, space and responsibilities, and our viewings guides cover the visit itself. Recheck each URA page on the day you pay.

Common questions