CEA's new agent rules, and what they don't fix

From 1 January 2027, CEA is rebuilding the agent regime around one test: prove you are still transacting, or leave. The useful question is not how many agents drop out, but which parts of the process get more reliable.

What actually changes on 1 January 2027

• Registration goes triennial. Licences and registrations valid three years instead of one. First cycle runs to 31 December 2029.
• A currency requirement. To renew, an agent needs at least three qualifying transactions across the cycle, or a pass in a refresher exam (details due H1 2029).
• Failing means leaving. Miss both routes and you retake the RES course and exam to re-enter. Not a delay, an exit.
• Exemptions apply. First-year joiners are exempt; mid-cycle joiners face a pro-rated bar of two. Waivers exist for serious illness.
• Commission reporting starts. Agencies report monthly. CEA publishes anonymised industry-level figures only, so it will not tell you what your agent earns.
• A listings verification platform launches, aimed at fake and duplicated listings.

Why the transaction floor is the sharp edge

CEA executive director Chan Khar Liang has said stakeholders "consistently highlighted the potential risk posed by property agents who do not complete transactions regularly." An agent who closed one HDB resale in 2024 and nothing since is working from memory of a market that has moved.

Three deals in 36 months is a low bar for a full-timer and a real one for somebody selling a flat a year for friends and relatives. That is the point. It sorts by activity, not talent. Two things it cannot do:

• It cannot tell three transactions from three good ones. Activity is a reasonable proxy for currency of knowledge. It is not a proxy for whether an agent will tell a seller their asking price is 6% above recent comparables.
• It does not sort by segment. Rentals count, as do commercial, industrial, overseas and collective sales. An agent can clear the bar on three rentals and still not have handled a resale since 2024. Eugene Lim of ERA, who chairs SIEA, makes the mirror point in agents' favour: some segments simply cycle more slowly.

So read a renewal as a floor, not a rating.

What none of it changes

An agent is paid on completion, and on the sell side paid more when the price is higher. Not an accusation, just the shape of the incentive. It points hardest at speed: 21 calendar days to exercise an HDB Option to Purchase, less on most private resale options, with valuation, approval and any real comparison squeezed inside. Sometimes that pressure is genuine market pressure. Either way, the agent's file closes at completion and yours does not.

Three checks that stay yours

• Look them up first. CEA's Public Register already shows a salesperson's residential transactions over the last two to three years, which side they represented, and any disciplinary record. Two minutes, and almost nobody does it. Then ask what they have transacted in your segment in the last 12 months, and in which blocks.
• Price off transacted data, not asking prices. HDB and URA both publish free. Asking prices are the exact figures duplicated listings inflate.
• Get your own numbers before you exercise. You buy at a price and borrow against a valuation. Where those diverge, the difference is cash.

The direction is right: fewer dormant agents, verifiable listings, the start of commission transparency. None of it moves the judgement calls to somebody else's side of the table.