HDB Conveyancing Fees: HDB Solicitor or Private Lawyer?

HDB publishes its conveyancing fee as a scale, which makes it one of the few costs in a resale transaction you can calculate exactly before you start. On a $700,000 flat the transfer fee is $649 before GST.

A private firm sets its own fee with no published scale, and the total is usually several times that. The catch is that the choice is not always yours: taking a bank loan brings the bank’s own solicitor requirements and removes HDB from the picture.

What HDB charges on a resale transfer

The transfer fee is calculated from the resale price:

Portion of resale price	Fee
First $30,000	13.50 cents per $100 or part
Next $30,000	10.80 cents per $100 or part
Remaining amount	9 cents per $100 or part

HDB rounds the fee up to the next dollar before applying GST, and the minimum chargeable is $21.80 including GST. Applied across a range of prices:

Resale price	Transfer fee before GST
$300,000	$289
$500,000	$469
$700,000	$649
$900,000	$829
$1,200,000	$1,099

The scale is regressive by design. The marginal rate falls from 13.50 cents to 9 cents per $100, so the fee rises far more slowly than the price. Doubling the price from $500,000 to $1 million does not double the fee.

A different scale applies to a new flat bought from HDB, at $0.90 per $1,000 for the first $30,000, $0.72 per $1,000 for the next $30,000 and $0.60 per $1,000 on the remainder. Do not use the resale figures for a BTO.

The mortgage fee is charged separately on the same scale

Where HDB also acts on your mortgage because you are taking an HDB housing loan, that is a second fee on the same 13.50, 10.80 and 9 cents scale, calculated on the loan rather than the price.

For a $700,000 flat financed with a $500,000 HDB loan:

Item	Before GST
Transfer fee on $700,000	$649
Mortgage fee on $500,000	$469
Total	$1,118

At 9% GST that is about $1,219 for the whole legal side of the purchase.

Where HDB acts in the mortgage there are also minimum fees: a mortgagor’s fee of $21.80 including GST for all flat types, and a mortgagee’s fee of $21.80 for 1- and 2-room flats or $43.60 for 3-room and larger. These bite only on very small amounts.

A bank loan takes the HDB option off the table

This is the part that decides the fee, and it is settled by your financing choice rather than by comparing law firms.

A bank requires its own solicitor to act on the mortgage. In practice the same firm then handles the purchase, so a bank-financed resale purchase is a private conveyancing matter from the start. Paying cash or taking an HDB housing loan keeps HDB available for eligible matters.

That makes legal cost part of the loan comparison rather than a separate line. If you are weighing an HDB loan against a bank package on a small rate difference, add the legal gap to the bank side. A difference of roughly $1,500 in legal fees is worth about three years of a 0.1 percentage point rate advantage on a $500,000 loan, which can reverse a decision made on the headline rate alone.

Our HDB loan and bank loan comparison sets out the rate and cash differences, and the bank loan guide for a resale flat covers the tenure and valuation conditions that come with the private route.

What to ask a private firm for

There is no published scale for private conveyancing, so a quote is the only way to know. Ask for it in writing, itemised rather than as a single figure:

• the conveyancing fee for the purchase, and whether GST is added
• the mortgage work for your bank, quoted separately
• disbursements: title searches, caveat lodgement, registration, CPF work
• which lines are fixed and which are estimates

Many banks offer a legal subsidy that covers part of the bill, sometimes most of it. Two conditions matter more than the headline amount. The subsidy is usually paid only if you use a firm on the bank’s panel, and it is clawed back if you redeem or refinance the loan inside a set period, commonly around three years. A subsidy that constrains refinancing for three years is not free.

When you pay, and what happens if the sale falls through

The legal fee does not all land at completion. Where HDB acts, it collects an initial payment covering legal fees and stamp duty at the resale application stage, well before keys change hands. Confirm the amount and the date in My Flat Dashboard rather than assuming, because this changes when you need the cash rather than how much of it.

Then ask both routes the same two questions, because a quote for a completed purchase does not answer either:

1. What is payable if the transaction does not complete? Work already done is generally chargeable, and the abortive position is where the two routes can diverge most.
2. Which payments must be cash on the day, and which can be drawn from CPF at completion?

A purchase that collapses after the option is exercised is the expensive scenario, because most of the legal work has been done by then and none of the purchase has. Settle the abortive fee before you appoint anyone, not when you need to invoke it. The same question applies on the seller’s side, where a buyer who fails to complete leaves the seller with legal work performed on a sale that did not happen.

The seller pays their own legal fees too

Each side appoints its own representation and pays for it. A seller has the same choice between HDB for eligible matters and a private firm, and the same constraint: an outstanding bank mortgage to discharge means private legal work.

The seller’s bill covers the transfer, the mortgage discharge and the CPF refund work rather than a new mortgage. Our HDB selling costs guide places it among the other seller deductions, and the condo selling costs guide covers the private property equivalent, where no HDB option exists at all.

An agent’s commission is a separate negotiation from the legal fee, and CEA prescribes no rate for it. Our guide to agent fees when selling compares the structures.

CPF can pay it, but not always first

CPF Ordinary Account savings can pay eligible legal fees and stamp duty. The practical constraint is sequencing rather than eligibility.

Some payments fall due before the CPF charge is lodged, which means paying in cash and being reimbursed afterwards. Ask HDB or your solicitor which items need cash on the day and which can be drawn from CPF at completion, then hold that cash separately from your deposit.

The HDB resale buyer fees guide lists the payments that cannot come from CPF at all, including the option fee and any Cash Over Valuation.

Checks before you appoint anyone

1. Settle the loan first. Whether you take an HDB loan or a bank loan determines whether HDB can act, and therefore the size of the legal bill.
2. If HDB can act, calculate the transfer fee from the scale and add the mortgage fee if you are borrowing from HDB. The figure is knowable in advance.
3. If a bank loan means private conveyancing, get two itemised quotes and confirm whether the bank’s subsidy requires a panel firm.
4. Ask for the subsidy clawback period and the date it ends, and check it against how long you expect to hold the loan.

The fee itself is rarely the largest cost in a resale purchase. It becomes expensive when a legal subsidy quietly locks you into a package for three years, which is worth more than the few hundred dollars the quote turns on.

Sources: CPF Board, HDB option fee and housing expenses, HDB, approval of resale application and legal fees, HDB, resale procedures.