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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Singapore's property agents are renewing their registrations from this month for three years instead of one. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA), the statutory board that regulates the trade, opened its 2026 Renewal Exercise on 1 October, according to the renewal page on its website, which carries an update dated the same day. The exercise runs until 30 November 2026.
It is the first renewal held under the three-year licensing and registration cycle that CEA announced in July. A real estate salesperson, the term Singapore law uses for an individual property agent, who renews this year will hold a registration valid from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029. The same page sets out a revised fee arrangement: the application fee is paid once for the whole cycle, the registration fee is still collected every year, and those who paid an application fee last year get part of it back.
Council for Estate Agencies, renewal of salesperson registration page, updated 1 October 2026.
What opened on 1 October
Two renewal windows opened together. CEA's page for salespersons and its page for estate agents, the licensed firms that salespersons work under, both give the same dates: 1 October to 30 November 2026. Both pages were updated on 1 October.
A salesperson does not apply to the regulator directly. The renewal application goes to the salesperson's estate agent, and CEA strongly advises that it be submitted by 30 November. The regulator says a complete application usually takes two to three weeks to process, and that an incomplete one may take longer.
The page also describes how the renewal appears in ACEAS, CEA's e-services system, which sorts each person into a category. Someone who is a salesperson only submits the renewal to the estate agent. A director or partner of a firm submits a separate director or partner renewal application. For a key executive officer of a firm, the salesperson renewal is included in the firm's own licence renewal.
Related readHow many US real estate agents are there, and what do they earn?A renewed registration runs for three calendar years, from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029. CEA says the cycle after that will cover 1 January 2030 to 31 December 2032, with details to be announced later.
The revised fees
The fee figures are small, but the timing of them has changed, and CEA's page is explicit that the update replaces what it told the industry earlier. It states that the fee information now published supersedes the fee information in CEA Notice 16-26, issued on 28 July 2026.
Under the arrangement now on the page, a salesperson's application fee is S$60, payable once every three years starting with the 2026 exercise. The registration fee is S$280, and CEA says registration fees are collected annually, with details to be provided in 2027. For firms, the estate agent licence renewal page gives an application fee of S$120, also payable once every three years, and a base licence fee of S$330 for a firm with one to ten salespersons. A tiered licence fee applies to larger firms, and licence fees continue to be charged every year.
| Fee | Amount | How often | One-time refund |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salesperson application | S$60 | Once every three years | S$30 |
| Salesperson registration | S$280 | Every year | None |
| Estate agent application | S$120 | Once every three years | S$60 |
| Estate agent licence | From S$330 | Every year | None |
Council for Estate Agencies renewal pages for salespersons and estate agents, updated 1 October 2026. Refunds apply only to application fees paid in the 2025 exercise.
The refund is the new element. Salespersons who paid the application fee in the 2025 renewal exercise will receive S$30 back out of the S$60 they paid, which is half. Estate agents who paid in 2025 will receive S$60 back out of S$120, again half. CEA says it will contact those who are eligible by December 2026.
That refund aside, the pages state that all fees are non-refundable, including when an application is withdrawn after it has been submitted.
Related readUS agents' status: three-way rule survives appeal, Senate gets a billOn the rates now published, the arithmetic for one salesperson across the 2027 to 2029 cycle is one application fee of S$60 and three annual registration fees of S$280, or S$840, which makes S$900 in all. That sum is a calculation from the current rates, not a figure CEA publishes, and the regulator has said that the details of annual collection will come in 2027.
The salesperson is not usually the one who settles the bill with the regulator. The Estate Agents (Fees) Regulations 2010 provide that the sponsoring estate agent pays the salesperson's registration fee, and CEA's page on applying for an estate agent licence says the firm pays all fees and must set up a GIRO account with the regulator once licensed. The renewal page for firms adds practical details: invoices are generated on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, GIRO deductions complete within two to three working days, and the account must be active and funded before the firm submits.
The rule behind the fees
The change in timing rests on an amendment to the fees regulations. CEA's legislation page, updated on 7 October 2026, lists the Estate Agents (Fees) Regulations 2010 in a version in force from 1 October 2026, the day the renewal opened. The consolidated text published by CEA shows the latest amendment as S 732/2026, with effect from the same date.
According to that text, the amendment changes the two provisions that govern when annual licence and registration fees fall due. The annual fee is payable as a condition of the grant or renewal, and then, from the calendar year after the grant or renewal, for each year of the licence or registration. One sub-provision of the same regulation is deleted. The schedule of fees also carries a mark for the amendment, although the consolidated text does not show which amounts, if any, were altered.
Related readWorking in Victorian real estate: licence, representative, new CPDThe regulations fix the amounts quoted on the renewal pages: S$120 for an estate agent's licence application or renewal, S$60 for a salesperson's registration or renewal, and S$280 for a year's registration, or S$140 when the period starts after 30 June. They also contain a rule that matters to anyone changing firm. The annual registration fee is not payable again in the same calendar year when a salesperson moves to a new estate agent that supports the application and the fee has already been paid.
Two further provisions set the limits of the system. The Council may impose a late-payment penalty of 10 per cent of the outstanding amount. And while no refund is due when a licence or registration is terminated, suspended or revoked, the Council may refund or remit all or part of any fee.
What a salesperson has to show
Paying is one condition among several. The renewal page lists the checks a salesperson must pass, and most of them have to be in order before the application is sent.
Training comes first. Salespersons are told to check on CEA's CPD Portal that they have fulfilled their continuing professional development requirement. The renewal page does not give the number of hours, but a CEA blog post of 30 July 2026 says the requirement rose to 16 training hours a year from 1 January 2026, under an initiative it calls Project ADEPT, and that salespersons must still complete 16 hours for 2026.
The second check concerns CPF MediSave. Contributions must be up to date, which the page defines as paid in full or covered by an active GIRO plan. Clearance follows full payment, or the first successful GIRO deduction, which falls on the 25th of the month or the next working day.
Related readBecoming a registered broker in Dubai: course, exam, card, renewalForeign salespersons have an extra document to supply: a Certificate of No Criminal Conviction from their country of origin, dated within three months of the application, or proof that they lived in Singapore from 2016 to 2026.
The page also sets out what happens around a move between firms. An application to switch estate agent in 2026 had to reach CEA by 30 September. Applications to switch for 2027 may be submitted from 1 October, and approval before 31 December allows a start on 1 January 2027. New or returning applicants whose applications reached CEA by 30 September must take part in this renewal to carry on into 2027; those received after that date do not.
The three-transaction test does not apply to the end-2026 renewal
CEA's blog post of 30 July 2026 says the Currency Requirement takes effect on 1 January 2027 and does not apply to this renewal. The 16 hours of training for 2026 still do.
The requirement that starts in January
The renewal page says salespersons must fulfil a three-year Currency Requirement in addition to the training and MediSave conditions, and refers readers to CEA's July press release. The firms' page is more precise on timing: the requirement applies to salespersons and key executive officers for the 2027 to 2029 period. It is the other half of the reform announced on 28 July 2026 at the Singapore Estate Agents Conference, and it is what the first three-year registration will be measured against.
As CEA's blog post of 30 July describes it, a salesperson must complete at least three qualifying property transactions in the three-year period, or pass a Refresher Examination. One who does neither cannot renew, and has to take the salesperson course and pass the salesperson examination again to return. New entrants are exempt in their first calendar year and then need two transactions within the remaining two years.
Related readDubai's programme for Emirati brokers: targets, partners and resultsThe July media release lists what counts: resale and rental transactions in public housing, sales and rentals of private homes, commercial and industrial sales and rentals, foreign property sales and en bloc transactions. A further CEA post dated 26 August 2026 says that one salesperson per side is normally recognised for each transaction, that up to five per side may be recognised case by case for complex deals, and that a seat in the Refresher Examination is guaranteed for every eligible candidate. Details of that examination are to be announced by the first half of 2029, according to the July post.
The same blog post explains how the cycle treats people who join mid-way. An estate agent or salesperson who joins on or after 1 January 2027 is valid from the joining date to 31 December of the third year. CEA's own example is a joiner on 15 February 2028, whose registration runs until 31 December 2030.
What changes for estate agents
Firms renew on the same calendar, with obligations of their own. A licence renewed by 31 December 2026 runs for three years, from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029, according to the estate agent renewal page.
Insurance is the main addition. A firm's professional indemnity insurance must cover at least 1 January to 31 December 2027, sized to the number of salespersons it has on the date the policy is bought. For the 2027 to 2029 period, CEA says cover may be bought for the full three years or year by year.
The page also freezes one kind of change while renewal is under way. A change of key executive officer is not allowed during the renewal period and can only take effect from 1 January 2027. Changes of director or partner can be requested only after the licence is renewed. Foreign directors and partners face the same certificate requirement as foreign salespersons, and the firm must be registered with ACRA, whose director and partner records must match those held in ACEAS.
The dates that follow
The calendar matters more than usual, because the cost of a late application is time out of work.
- 1 October 2026The renewal exercise opens. Applications to switch firm for 2027 may also be submitted.
- 30 November 2026The exercise closes. CEA strongly advises applying by this date.
- 1 to 31 December 2026Applications are still accepted, but may not be approved before the new year.
- By December 2026CEA contacts those eligible for the one-time refund of half the 2025 application fee.
- 1 January 2027Three-year registrations and licences begin. The Currency Requirement takes effect.
The December window carries the risk. CEA accepts applications from 1 to 31 December 2026 but says it may not approve them before 1 January 2027, and a salesperson cannot perform estate agency work from that date until approval is given. The same holds for an estate agent whose licence renewal is still pending.
Beyond January, three announcements are still to come from the regulator: the details of how annual registration fees will be collected, promised for 2027; the Refresher Examination, by the first half of 2029; and the 2029 renewal exercise for the 2030 to 2032 cycle, which CEA says will be announced later.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
