In 2015, Singapore home sellers who hired an estate agent have on average boost their selling price by more SG$ 200,000 for private properties and by more than SG$ 40,000 for HDB vs. home seller not hiring an estate agent.
Engaging an Estate Agent or not
When looking to buy or sell a property, it can be tempting to try to do it on your own. It’s easy to convince yourself that handling this on your own will be both effective and cost-efficient.
It may be true for the few that have both a professional expertise in real-estate and the time to properly take care of a home sale. But for the vast majority of homeowners, not hiring a property agent is an incredibly daunting and overwhelming process. And as data are showing, it often ends with financial disappointment.
In Singapore context
In countries where house prices are relatively high like Singapore, a small boost on the transacted selling price can represent tens of thousands of additional dollars for the prospective home seller. That’s a serious difference. Something that the smart owner would not want to miss and that good estate agents can help to achieve.
In 2015, according to data from Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for private properties and Data.gov.sg for HDBs, average Residential Property Transaction price were:
– Private Residential: SG$ 2,016,672
– HDB: SG$ 434,707
With such high prices, the boost brought by a good real estate agent – would it be small – leads to a significant difference when it comes to selling price. So, what is the boost on sale price home sellers can expect from hiring an estate agent?
Relative Boost
Data to show the impact that a professional can have on the transacted price are neither easy to collect nor to find. But actually, they are now available and reliable. They show something very clear: using an estate agent to sell your home boost the sales price on average by 13%.
Knowing that these data are from a US study, are they relevant for the Singapore market and can we consider them? Actually, we don’t see any reason why it would not be the case. What’s specific about the Singapore market is its dynamics, macroeconomic conditions, etc. not the job definition and scope of a real-estate agent.
But let’s be conservative and assume that in Singapore, the boost would be not 13% but only 10%. In such case, how much extra revenue is hiring a estate agent bringing to the home seller?
Absolute Boost in Singapore
For Singapore owners considering to sell a home, hiring an estate agent leads to increase the expected selling price by:
– Private Residential: SG$ 201,667
– HDB: SG$ 43,707
Yes, you read correctly, that is multiple months or years salary.
Smart prospective sellers know that hiring an estate agent will help them -on average- to collect more money from their sales, around 10%.
Sources:
- Data analysis: Propseller
- Private Residential Property Transaction prices: URA
- HDB Property Transaction prices: Data.gov.sg
- *Sales price with vs. without hiring a real-estate agent: National Association of REALTORS®
Adrien Jorge 