Your defects clock may already be running. And you have not collected your keys.

1. The defects clock starts earlier than most owners think

This is the single most common mistake I see at handover, and it costs owners real money.

Your Defects Liability Period, usually shortened to DLP, runs for twelve months. Almost everyone assumes it begins on the day they collect their keys. Under the standard sale and purchase agreement for uncompleted private residential property, it begins on whichever of these two dates comes first:

• The date of actual delivery of vacant possession to you, meaning key collection, or
• The fifteenth day after the Temporary Occupation Permit is issued

Gaps of one to three months between TOP and key collection are normal, so this is not an edge case. It is the standard situation. Check your developer's TOP notice, not your key collection letter, and count forward from there.

Your exact terms sit in your own sale and purchase agreement, and some contracts specify longer periods. Read the clause. It is worth the ten minutes.

2. What the developer actually owes you

During the DLP, the developer is responsible for rectifying defects in your unit, the project, and the common property, at their cost. This covers issues arising from construction, workmanship, and materials. It does not cover normal wear and tear, and it does not cover damage caused during your own renovation.

The process, in order

1. Submit your defects using the developer's form, usually routed through the managing agent. Many developments now use a digital defect portal with photo upload and status tracking.
2. The developer is expected to rectify within one month of receiving your notification.
3. If they do not, you may obtain a quotation from your own contractor and give the developer written notice of your intention to proceed, together with that quotation.
4. If they still do not act within the period set out in your agreement, you may carry out the works and claim the cost.

Practical inspection notes

• Photograph everything, with a date visible where possible. A phone photo is evidence.
• Submit early rather than accumulating a perfect list. You can submit again.
• Test what a walkthrough misses: every socket, every tap under load, drainage falls in the bathrooms and yard, window and door alignment across their full swing, and the aircon on a long run rather than a two minute check.
• Do not start renovation before your defects are logged. Once a contractor touches a surface, attribution becomes an argument.
• Structural defects sit under a separate and much longer limitation framework. If something looks structural, say so explicitly in writing rather than filing it as a finishing item.

3. Your first ninety days, in sequence

Handover season compresses an enormous amount into a short window. This is the order it usually runs in.

• Before TOPDeveloper issues the notice of intended completion. Confirm your loan disbursement, insurance, and legal completion steps with your banker and lawyer. Nothing about the property is in your hands yet, but the money timeline is.
• TOP issuedYour defects clock is now on a countdown. Note the date. Fifteen days later it starts if you have not already taken possession.
• Weeks 1 to 4, key collectionAppointment slots, document signing, meter readings, access cards, and carpark registration. The estate is at its busiest and security is stretched thin.
• Weeks 1 to 6, defects inspectionInspect thoroughly, ideally with an inspector if the unit is large or you are overseas. Submit through the official channel, not verbally to a site supervisor.
• Weeks 4 to 12, rectificationAccess appointments for contractors, then joint re-inspection to confirm the work. Expect at least one round of items being marked done that are not.
• Weeks 8 onward, decision pointRent, sell, or move in. If you are leasing, this is when marketing should already be live, not when you start thinking about it.

4. The competition wave nobody warns you about

There is a widespread belief that TOP is the easiest time to rent or sell because of the buzz around a new development. The reality is more demanding than that.

When a project completes, a large number of near identical units enter the market inside the same few weeks. Same stacks, same layouts, same finishes. Many were bought as investments, and all of those owners need a tenant at roughly the same time.

The wider market data reflects that pressure. Islandwide private residential vacancy rose from 6.2 percent to 6.4 percent in the second quarter of 2026, and non landed condominium rents grew only 0.4 percent in the headline index that quarter even though leasing volume rose 5.1 percent, because demand was absorbed by newly completed stock. Industry analysts project a heavier completion pipeline into 2027 and 2028.

So the post TOP window is not a period where a unit markets itself. It is the most competitive moment your unit will ever face inside its own development.

What actually decides who transacts first

• Presentation. An empty unit photographs badly. Lighting, a clean floor plan, and a walkthrough video separate your listing from twenty identical ones.
• Speed of access. A tenant viewing three units on a Saturday sees the ones that could be arranged. Being unavailable is being excluded.
• Realistic pricing on entry. One void month usually costs more than a full year of the rent increase you were holding out for.

5. Rent or sell, and the SSD question

The most common worry I hear at handover is Seller's Stamp Duty. For most new launch buyers, it is less of an issue than they fear, because of one detail.

SSD currently runs on two tracks, decided by when you bought:

SSD is calculated on the higher of the selling price or the market value, and it applies regardless of whether you made a gain. It is payable within fourteen days of the relevant contract date. Verify your own position against IRAS or with your lawyer before you commit to a timeline, because the acquisition date on your documents is what counts, not your recollection of it.

A simple way to frame the decision

• Lean towards leasing if you are still inside your SSD window, if your holding cost is comfortable, or if the development has a heavy wave of resale listings right now.
• Lean towards selling if your holding period has cleared, if the unit is a strong stack that stands out from the surrounding supply, or if your capital is needed elsewhere.
• Do neither in a hurry. The pressure to be first out of the gate is almost always the seller's anxiety rather than the market's demand.

6. If you are leasing, the fit out standard that actually matters

Owners consistently overestimate what tenants want and underestimate what they expect as standard.

• Service the aircon before the first viewing. A unit that smells musty on a Saturday afternoon loses the tenant in the first ten seconds.
• Curtains or blinds and light fittings are expected. A bare unit with exposed bulbs reads as unfinished, not as a blank canvas.
• Furnished versus unfurnished depends on your target tenant. Expatriates on shorter postings and corporate lets usually want furnished. Local families and longer stays often prefer unfurnished and will discount a unit stuffed with furniture they do not want.
• Do not over renovate for a rental. Feature walls and bespoke carpentry rarely return their cost in rent, and they narrow your tenant pool.
• Fix the small things. A sticking door, a dripping tap, and a scuffed skirting board tell a tenant how the next two years of maintenance requests will go.

7. First wave or second wave

There is a real strategic choice at TOP, and it is not obvious.

Listing in the first wave puts you in front of the tenants who were waiting specifically for this development, which is a real pool. It also puts you directly against every other owner with the same stack, at the moment supply is deepest.

Waiting for the second wave, roughly two to four months in, means less direct competition as early listings clear, and a unit that shows better because the estate is settled and the landscaping is in. It costs you carrying months.

The honest answer is that it depends on your stack, your holding cost, and how many comparable units are live right now. That is a five minute conversation with someone who can see the current listing count in your development, not a rule of thumb.

8. A note on agents in your estate

Handover season is when residents see the most agent activity, and some of it is genuinely unwelcome. Turning up unannounced at a stranger's door hours after key collection is not defensible, and I would not defend it.

The standard worth holding everyone to is simple. Anyone in your estate should be there against a booked appointment with a named owner or unit, should register at the guardhouse, should be able to produce an estate agent card with a CEA registration number you can verify on the public register, and should leave when the appointment ends. If that standard is breached, report it in writing to your managing agent, raise it with your MCST, and escalate to CEA with the registration number if it persists.

The reason this matters to owners rather than only to residents is that the same access policy governs legitimate viewings. An estate that restricts viewings to weekday office hours has effectively excluded most working tenants and buyers, and the owners trying to lease or sell carry that cost. Security and access are not opposites. A booked appointment, a guardhouse register, escort in and out, and a strike system enforced by the managing agent protects residents on a Tuesday evening without shutting down the transactions that keep a development visible.

Frequently asked questions