How Counter Offers Work in a Singapore Property Deal

A counter offer in a Singapore property deal is simply a different price or term proposed in response to an earlier offer. Neither an offer nor a counter offer is legally binding on its own. The process only becomes binding once both sides agree on price and the buyer is granted, and later exercises, a signed Option to Purchase.

Timing: From First Offer to a Signed Option

Most private resale negotiations in Singapore start informally, often through the agents involved, with a buyer indicating a price they are willing to pay and a seller responding with acceptance, silence, or a different figure of their own. This back and forth, whether verbal or in a written offer form, is not a contract. It is a way for both sides to find a price they can agree on before any legal document changes hands.

The process becomes formal once the seller agrees to grant the buyer an Option to Purchase at an agreed price, in exchange for an option fee. That option gives the buyer the exclusive right to buy at that price within a set option period. If the buyer exercises the option within that period, typically by paying a further exercise fee, both sides are then bound to complete the sale on the agreed terms. HDB resale transactions follow a broadly similar structure through the HDB resale portal, with HDB's own option fee and option period rules.

Money: Why a Counter Offer Is Not Binding

An informal offer or counter offer sets out a proposed price, but it does not itself transfer any legal right or obligation. This is why a seller can accept several conversations at once, and why a buyer can withdraw an offer before it is formalised, without either side owing the other anything. The only point where money and legal obligation genuinely attach is when the option fee is paid for a signed Option to Purchase, and even then, the obligation to complete only arises once that option is exercised within its stated period.

Because of this, it is worth treating verbal assurances during the counter offer stage, from either side, as exactly that, verbal and not yet binding. If a specific term matters to you, whether price, included fittings, or a completion date, make sure it is reflected in the Option to Purchase itself before you rely on it.

Safety: Multiple Offers and What Agents May Not Do

A seller is entitled to consider more than one interested buyer at the same time before granting an option to any of them. CEA registered agents are required to conduct themselves honestly in this process and must not misrepresent the existence, number, or level of competing offers to pressure a buyer into raising their price. If an agent tells you there is another offer, you are entitled to ask reasonable questions about it, and a genuine, well run negotiation should be able to withstand those questions.

If you believe an agent has misrepresented facts about competing offers or otherwise acted improperly during a negotiation, you can raise it directly with the agency or check the agent's standing on the CEA public register.

Safety: Making the Process Fair, Not a Pressure Tactic

A counter offer negotiation works best when both sides are making genuine decisions based on their own budget, timeline, and view of comparable transactions, rather than reacting to manufactured urgency. Presenting a counter offer as a countdown, an ultimatum, or a scripted pressure tactic is not appropriate practice for either a buyer's or a seller's agent, and this article does not offer scripted language for that purpose. Genuine urgency, such as a real deadline tied to another transaction, is worth disclosing plainly rather than dramatising.

If a negotiation stalls because the two sides simply value the property differently, that is a normal outcome, not a failure of technique. Either side is entitled to end the conversation and look elsewhere at any point before an Option to Purchase is signed.

Money: Comparable Prices as the Basis for Any Offer

The most useful preparation before entering any offer or counter offer conversation is not a script, it is recent comparable transaction data. URA publishes actual private transacted prices, and HDB resale transactions are recorded in public datasets, both searchable before you make an initial offer. Anchoring your own number to genuine comparable sales, rather than to the asking price alone or to what you feel the property should be worth, gives you a defensible position if the seller or their agent pushes back on your figure.

The same applies from the seller's side. A counter offer grounded in recent comparable sales for the same project or a similar nearby property is easier to defend, and easier for the other side to accept, than a counter offer grounded only in what the seller originally paid or what they feel the unit is worth. Data moves negotiations forward. Positions based purely on feeling tend to stall them.

Timing: What Happens Once the Option Is Exercised

Once the buyer exercises the Option to Purchase within its option period, the price and key terms are fixed, Buyer Stamp Duty becomes payable, and both parties proceed to complete the sale through their lawyers on the agreed timeline. From this point, the earlier back and forth of offers and counter offers is no longer relevant. What matters is what is written in the exercised option and the Sale and Purchase Agreement that follows it, which is why getting the wording right before exercise, with your own lawyer's input, matters more than any earlier verbal negotiation.

Related Reading

• Option to Purchase guide
• Offers, negotiation and granting the OTP
• Choosing between multiple OTPs
• Making an offer as a first time buyer

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