Option to purchase in Singapore: what each date starts

In Singapore, the option to purchase (OTP) you are given when you pay a new-launch booking fee starts one official clock. Under the standard terms in an archived 2020 URA circular, it expires three weeks after the sale and purchase agreement (S&PA) and copies of the title deeds are delivered, and the developer may forfeit 25% of the booking fee if you have not exercised it by signing and returning the S&PA. Other clocks run from other dates, and the official pages show which.

IRAS requires a document to be stamped before it is signed, or within 14 days after signing in Singapore, and measures the ABSD profile and the SSD holding period from a “date of purchase”, which it ties to acceptance of the option or the date of the S&PA. Neither IRAS page lists the booking fee as that date. New launches are taking bookings this month: CDL’s 4 October 2026 release says it commenced Lucerne Grand sales on Saturday, 3 October 2026, and our sales galleries note gives the dated stages of others (our pipeline page tracks each project’s stated status). Our payment schedule guide gathers what URA and CPF say about the payments that follow, with its stage percentages labelled unverified, and this one covers the document and the dates. It is general information, not legal or tax advice.

What does the option to purchase commit you to?

URA’s buyer guidance sets the order: the developer gives you its mandatory information, then you pay a booking fee for the issue of the option. Under the archived circular, you exercise the standard option by signing the S&PA and returning it before it expires; the circular says the three-week validity is meant to encourage buyers to exercise financial prudence and commit only when they have the financial means.

On an illustrative booking fee of S$100,000 (yours is in your option), 25% is S$25,000. The circular says the developer “may” forfeit it, and does not say how the other 75% is returned or when, so ask in writing. Our own reading, not a stated rule: because the three weeks run from delivery of the documents, the expiry date cannot be fixed on booking day. Ask for it in writing when the documents arrive.

Which forms and disclosures should be in front of you?

• Prescribed forms. The Controller has pre-approved a list of amendments to the option and S&PA; any other variation needs the Controller’s approval. Ask whether either document departs from the prescribed form. The list is a PDF that did not open on our network on 3 or 17 October 2026, so we cannot say what is on it.
• Mandatory information. Its contents are in a URA PDF we could not open, so we do not list them. Read it yourself and keep a copy of what you were handed. Our guide on what a developer must have before you pay a booking fee covers the developer side.
• Due diligence. From 1 July 2025, developers must identify the person on whose behalf a natural-person purchaser is acting and extend existing screening to that person (URA circular 2025-01, 30 June 2025; URA adds that these measures are generally not new to developers). If you are buying on behalf of someone else, say so at the start. We did not read the circular’s guidelines annex, so we cannot list what a developer may ask for.

Can the developer re-issue an option or give you more time?

Re-issue is restricted. Under the licence conditions in Annex A of the 2020 circular, a developer may not, without the Controller’s prior written consent, give a purchaser an option on a unit within 12 months after an earlier option on that unit to that purchaser expired, “whether with or without other intending purchaser(s)” and “whether for the same or different purchase price”. Our reading is that adding a co-buyer or changing the price does not reset the 12 months; confirm with your lawyer. Where that restriction applies, the developer must also notify you of it, and obtain your written acknowledgment that it did so, before giving you an option for any unit in the project (Annex A, condition 3). Developers are further restricted from agreeing upfront with a purchaser to re-issue an option, so a promise at the outset of “another option if you need it” is the kind of arrangement the circular targets. We have not seen any developer’s current licence, so ask the developer to confirm what applies to your option.

More time is possible only by agreement of buyer and developer. The circular says the Controller is prepared to extend the validity period up to 12 weeks from the option date, counted from that date and not from expiry. Purchasers or developers apply to ura_coh_registry@ura.gov.sg with a copy of the option, its expiry date and the reasons for needing more time; the circular’s example is a purchaser who needs more time to complete the sale of an existing property before exercising the option. None of the pages we read says whether an extension moves any tax date, so ask your lawyer.

Which date starts which clock?

IRAS’s ABSD page says the date of purchase is the earliest of the date of execution of the acceptance to the option to purchase, the date of the S&PA and, for trusts and transfers, other dates. That page’s FAQ and the SSD page (“in most instances”) add a footnote: “Excludes an Option to Purchase that is subject to the execution/ signing of the Sale and Purchase Agreement”. IRAS’s SSD FAQ adds that for an option granted before 4 July 2025 and accepted on or after it, the holding period starts from acceptance. None of these says whether a developer’s standard option, which the archived circular says you exercise by signing the S&PA, is an option of the excluded kind. Until your lawyer confirms, plan with both candidate dates; below they are four weeks apart.

The calendar uses a fictional buyer granted an option on Saturday, 24 October 2026. The delivery (day 14) and signing (day 28) dates are assumptions invented for the example, and the S$100,000 fee is illustrative.

• Day 0, Saturday 24 October 2026: option date. Booking fee paid; neither IRAS page lists the fee as the date of purchase. An extension can run at most 12 weeks from here (archived circular).
• Day 14, Saturday 7 November: S&PA and title deed copies delivered (assumed). The three weeks start (archived circular).
• Day 28, Saturday 21 November: S&PA signed (assumed). The second candidate date of purchase. IRAS says an uncompleted unit counts in your property count once the S&PA is signed.
• Day 35, Saturday 28 November: the option would lapse if unexercised (7 November plus three weeks, on the archived circular’s terms), when the developer may forfeit S$25,000 of the S$100,000 fee. Take the real date from your option.
• Day 42, Saturday 5 December: 14 days after the assumed signing. IRAS requires stamping before signing and allows 14 days after signing in Singapore without penalty (30 days after receiving it in Singapore if signed overseas). Your lawyer will say which document is stamped and when.
• Day 84, Saturday 16 January 2027: the furthest an extended option could run, if both sides agree and the Controller extends it.
• Thursday 24 October 2030 or Thursday 21 November 2030: the fourth anniversary. On our reading of IRAS’s example, a sale on or after that date is SSD-free, depending on which date is the date of purchase. IRAS’s own example buys on 7 July 2025 and shows no SSD on a sale on or after 7 July 2029.

The date of purchase also fixes the ABSD profile: IRAS says the rate depends on the buyer’s profile on that date, and the highest rate applies when buyers of different profiles purchase together. IRAS also says a property is excluded from your count where there is already a contract or agreement to sell it and the buyer has executed their option to buy it, so show your lawyer the order of your two transactions.

One trap: URA’s buying property page (29 June 2026) gives SSD as three years for purchases on or after 11 March 2017 and does not mention 4 July 2025; IRAS’s SSD page (13 August 2026) says four years for homes purchased on or after 4 July 2025, with no transition period. Use IRAS’s later-dated figures and confirm with your lawyer. Our stamp duty guide has the rates; our guide on counting the four SSD years covers the dates.

What to confirm at the table before you pay the booking fee

Copy this list and tick it off with your lawyer.

• Option expiry, stamping deadline, and the date of purchase for ABSD and for SSD, each as a calendar date.
• Who receives the S&PA and title deed copies, and when they are due.
• Every name on the option, and each buyer’s residency status and number of Singapore residential properties on the date of purchase (see who goes on a joint-purchase contract).
• Whether you are buying on behalf of anyone else.
• That you have read the mandatory information, and any amendment to the option or S&PA.
• Any side letter or verbal promise, in writing, and any earlier option you held on the same unit in the past 12 months. Which promised benefits can change the price stamp duty is charged on is in our developer discount guide.
• If your existing home is still to be sold: whether the developer would agree to an extension application.
• The forfeiture amount (the archived circular says 25% of the booking fee may be forfeited), what would be returned and when.
• Whether your option’s validity, forfeiture and re-issue terms match the archived 2020 circular summarised above, and where they differ.

If a child’s P1 registration may use the new address, MOE’s rule turns on the possession date: see our P1 registration guide. Keep the answers with your research file. For OTP, S&PA and BSD in plain words, see the new launch glossary; the new-launch deadlines calendar sets the other dated clocks beside this one; for more on showflat visits, see our viewings guides.

Common questions