The New Launch Condo Buying Process: From Showflat to Keys

Buying a new launch runs on a fixed legal sequence with deadlines measured in days and weeks, then a payment schedule measured in years. Miss an early deadline and you lose money; misread the payment schedule and you strain your finances in year three. This guide walks the whole sequence in order.

Step 1: Set the budget before the showflat

The showflat exists to expand your budget. Fix it beforehand:

• Get a bank's In-Principle Approval so your loan ceiling is an approved number before the sales gallery starts working on you. New launch purchases follow the same 75% loan-to-value limit and 55% Total Debt Servicing Ratio as any private purchase.
• Count the cash: the 5% booking fee must be cash, Buyer's Stamp Duty falls due within 14 days of exercising (cash first, CPF reimbursement after, for private property), and legal fees sit outside the loan. How CPF flows through each stage, and the limits that can stop it, are in our guide to using CPF for property.
• If a second property is involved, price the Additional Buyer's Stamp Duty into the plan from day one; it is payable upfront and dwarfs most other costs.

Step 2: Research the project like a sceptic

The e-brochure and price guide arrive before the showflat opens. Read them against independent evidence: recent caveats for nearby projects in URA's transaction records, the URA Master Plan for every neighbouring plot, and the developer's track record on past handovers. The checks in our first-condo mistakes guide, particularly the stack-versus-showflat distinction, do the most damage prevention at this stage.

Step 3: Booking day

Launch weekends run on a ballot-and-queue system. You register interest, submit a blank cheque or proof of funds, and receive a queue number; when your number is called, you pick from the units still available and pay the 5% booking fee in exchange for the Option to Purchase. Two realities to hold onto in the room:

• The queue creates urgency by design. Units you shortlisted may go to earlier numbers. Decide your walk-away price and acceptable stacks the night before, and hold to them when the sales gallery board turns red. Rank at least five acceptable units, because ranking two amounts to letting the queue choose for you.
• Bring the paperwork that makes you transactable. Identity documents for every buyer, the IPA, and the cheque book. Joint purchases need every party present or represented, and the ABSD declaration forms ask about every property each buyer holds, local and overseas; answer them accurately, because IRAS reconciles these declarations against title records.
• The booking fee is a near-commitment. Walk away later and you forfeit a portion of it, conventionally a quarter, per the standard terms described in PropertyGuru's payment guide. On a $1.5 million unit that is roughly $18,750 for changing your mind.

Step 4: The S&P agreement and the 20% mark

The developer delivers the Sale and Purchase Agreement within days of booking. You then have 3 weeks from its delivery to exercise it, and the balance of the downpayment, bringing your total to 20%, falls due within 8 weeks of the option date. Buyer's Stamp Duty lands in the same window, within 14 days of exercising.

This stretch is where financing becomes final. Convert the IPA into a formal loan offer before exercising, not after; a buyer who exercises first and shops for loans second negotiates from weakness.

The loan itself differs from a completed-property mortgage. Banks sell building-under-construction packages for new launches, usually on floating rates and usually without a lock-in period during construction, because there is little loan outstanding to lock. That structure gives you a free option most buyers never use: as TOP approaches and the big disbursements loom, you can reprice or refinance into whatever package suits the rates of that year. Diarise it. The buyers who suffer in the final stages are the ones still sitting on a package chosen three years earlier for a loan that barely existed yet.

Step 5: Progressive payments through construction

The remaining 80% follows the progressive payment schedule prescribed under the Housing Developers rules; the milestone structure is fixed and developers cannot vary it. In outline, per PropertyGuru's schedule breakdown:

Stage	Payment
Booking + exercise (weeks 0–8)	20%
Construction milestones (foundation to roads)	40%, in stages
TOP obtained	25%
Legal completion	15%

Your bank disburses the loan stage by stage, so repayments start small and step up as construction progresses. The trap sits at the end: the final 40% arrives across TOP and completion, which means your full mortgage begins years after booking, at whatever interest rates then apply. Model the repayment on the fully disbursed loan rather than the gentle early instalments.

Step 6: TOP, inspection and keys

At TOP you collect keys, and the defects liability period begins. Inspect before renovating: run every tap, test every window and fitting, check walls and floors for cracks and hollow tiles, log defects in writing, and submit the list while the developer remains on the hook. Maintenance fees also start at TOP whether you move in or not, so budget for them from key collection even if you move in months later. Completion follows once the Certificate of Statutory Completion and title are in order, with the final payment.

If you would rather skip the wait entirely, projects that have already reached TOP with developer stock remaining behave differently on price and process; we cover that route in buying a completed new launch.

What can go wrong at each stage

The standard S&P is a heavily regulated document, and most of its protections favour the buyer. Know which ones apply where:

• Before exercise: your only exposure is the forfeited portion of the booking fee. If financing falls through between booking and exercise, walking away is painful but bounded.
• During construction: the S&P carries an expected vacant possession date, and the standard terms provide liquidated damages if the developer delivers late. Delay compensates you; it does not, however, pause your life, so plans that assume the earliest advertised TOP date have no buffer.
• Before the final disbursements: the risk is yours, not the developer's. Income changes, rate rises and a lower valuation at TOP all land on the buyer. The stress test that mattered was the one you ran on day one.

The full timeline at a glance

Phase	Time
Research and IPA	2–6 weeks, yours to control
Booking to S&P exercise	About 3 weeks
Exercise to 20% paid	Within 8 weeks of option
Construction	Typically 3–4 years
TOP to completion	Months, per project

The sequence is rigid. Preparation is the part you control, and buyers who arrive at booking day with financing cleared, stacks ranked, and a walk-away price written down make better decisions than buyers who let the queue decide. If you want a second pair of eyes on a launch you are considering, that is what we do.

Sources: PropertyGuru — condo payment schedule guide, URA — private residential transactions, IRAS — Buyer's Stamp Duty.