How HDB Contra Facility Helps Your Selling and Buying Timeline

Looking at this example, you will realize that 1 month will be lost to the transaction processing timeline.

And if you managed to get 3 months extension of stay for your selling, you will only be left with 2 months to do your new house renovation and move over.

This 1 month gap will definitely be there if you are not using HDB Contra Facility, because your conveyancing lawyer requires 2 weeks for your CPF to be refunded from your sale, and another 2 weeks to process the usage of your refunded CPF funds for the purchase.

If you are planning to sell and buy your HDB flat, you might have come across this term – HDB Contra or Enhanced Contra Facility.

This word sounds complex, and might be already confusing you, which is why we are going to explain it here and make it simple for you to understand about HDB Contra.

So what is HDB Contra Facility, and how can you make use of it to smoothly sell and buy your HDB?

HDB Contra is a facility that allows you to sell and buy your HDB flat at the same time, while using the sales proceeds and refunded CPF monies from your sale to offset your purchase. This allows the selling and buying to completed on the same day, and will hugely benefit your resale timeline planning as it saves you at least 1 month of transaction processing time.

Let’s dive deeper into understanding the details, so you can know what to look out for when planning to sell and buy with HDB Contra Facility.

• Why use HDB Contra?

• HDB Contra Eligibility

• Fees and Charges

• Conclusion

Here’s a simple example for you to understand why you will want to use HDB Contra Facility if you are selling and buying.

Say you want to sell your flat and buy another flat..

And based on your financial calculation, you will need the cash proceeds / CPF refunded monies from your existing flat sale in order to complete your flat purchase.

If you were to proceed with your selling and buying without doing a Contra, your buying transaction will only be able to be completed about 1 month after your selling transaction is completed.

And this is how your selling and buying timeline will look like:

Looking at this example, you will realize that 1 month will be lost to the transaction processing timeline.

And if you managed to get 3 months extension of stay for your selling, you will only be left with 2 months to do your new house renovation and move over.

This 1 month gap will definitely be there if you are not using HDB Contra Facility, because your conveyancing lawyer requires 2 weeks for your CPF to be refunded from your sale, and another 2 weeks to process the usage of your refunded CPF funds for the purchase.

So if you do not have an alternative place to stay while going through your selling and buying process, every day counts and you would definitely want to save this 1 month gap and use it for your new house renovation.

This is where Contra comes in handy, provided you are eligible for it.

If your selling and buying transaction allows for Contra, you should make use of this facility, and your resale timeline will look much better like this:

By using HDB Contra Facility, you can successfully eliminate the 1 month gap, and you will be able to complete your selling and buying transaction on the same day..

Thus allowing you to start your new house renovation immediately, or allowing you to move into your new house immediately.

Now that you are aware how HDB Contra works, and how useful it is to help you minimize your selling and buying timeline, you will need to understand whether are you eligible to utilize HDB Contra Facility.

Below, we’ve summarized the different cases of selling and buying, and whether contra can be used.

So, you will need to ensure that you fulfill the above requirements for both your selling and buying before HDB will allow you to Contra.

You also need to know that HDB only allows 1 Contra Party.

This means that if you are planning to do Contra, then the buyer of your existing flat and the seller of the flat that you wish to purchase, cannot be doing Contra.

And you will be referred to as the Contra Party.

With Contra looking complicated with plenty to take note of, does using Contra Facility come with any fees or charges?

The good news is, HDB Contra Facility is free and it does not incur any additional fees or charges.

So if you are eligible, we encourage you to make good use of this facility to maximize your resale timeline planning.

Regardless how much research and guides you read up, there might still be some shortcomings which you might not be aware of.

If you are making property plans for your HDB flat, do check out our HDB selling and buying services.

We will be able to give you full answers and advice on your property plans, and you can also engage an experienced realtor’s help to walk through a smooth selling and buying process.