Who holds my security deposit after the property is sold?

The new owner becomes your landlord and the obligation to return the deposit runs with the reversion under section 11 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886. In practice the deposit is adjusted between seller and buyer at completion, so get written confirmation that the buyer now holds it.

Is an HDB flat different when the owner sells?

Yes, and it is the opposite outcome. HDB requires the seller to give vacant possession of the flat at resale completion, which is about 8 weeks after HDB accepts the resale application. The tenancy has to end before that date, so an HDB tenant on a sale is effectively on a countdown.

Does the new owner inherit the reinstatement clause?

Yes. The reinstatement obligation is a covenant with reference to the subject matter of the lease, so it passes to the buyer with the reversion. You still owe reinstatement to the original move-in condition, not to whatever the new owner would prefer the unit to look like.

Tenancy guide

Your Landlord Is Selling Mid-Lease: What Happens to Your Tenancy in Singapore?

By Mr Kobayashi, Co-Founder, REINSTATE.by MCSG · Updated 29 September 2026 · 7 min read

A sale does not end your lease. For private property, section 46(1)(h) of the Land Titles Act 1993 makes a new owner take the land subject to the rights of anyone in occupation under a tenancy of 7 years or less. You stay until the lease ends. An HDB flat is the opposite: it is sold with vacant possession.

The message usually arrives as a viewing request. Your landlord is selling, an agent wants access on Saturday, and nobody has told you whether you still have a home in three months. In Singapore the answer turns on one thing most people get wrong: whether the unit is private property or an HDB flat.

Does selling the property end my tenancy?

No, not for private property. Section 46(1)(h) of the Land Titles Act 1993 says a person who becomes the registered proprietor holds the land subject to the rights of any person in occupation under a tenancy whose term does not exceed 7 years and could not be extended by a renewal option beyond 7 years in total.

That single paragraph is why almost every Singapore residential tenancy survives a sale. A standard one or two year lease is nowhere near the 7 year ceiling, and it does not need to be registered at the Singapore Land Authority to bind the buyer. What matters is that you are in occupation when the buyer is registered as proprietor.

This is not a rare situation. URA recorded 3,813 private residential resale transactions in the second quarter of 2026, against roughly 22,290 private rental contracts signed in the same quarter, and rents rose 0.7% over the quarter. A meaningful share of those sales involve a unit with someone living in it.

Who becomes my landlord, and who holds my deposit?

The buyer steps into the landlord's shoes at completion. Section 10 of the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886 passes the rent and the benefit of your covenants to the new owner, and section 11 passes the burden of the landlord's covenants, including the obligation to return your security deposit, with the reversion.

In conveyancing practice the deposit is dealt with as an adjustment at completion: the seller credits it to the buyer, or hands it over, and the buyer takes on the repayment obligation. Neither statute requires anyone to tell you this happened, which is exactly where deposits go missing.

Ask for one email, in writing, before completion: the new owner's name, the account the deposit now sits in, where rent goes from the completion date, and confirmation that the tenancy agreement is taken over unchanged. On a S$4,500 a month lease the deposit is typically S$9,000, which is too much money to leave to a verbal handover between two agents.

Is an HDB flat different?

Yes, and the outcome flips. HDB requires the seller to give vacant possession of the flat to the buyer at resale completion, which falls about 8 weeks after HDB accepts the resale application. The tenancy must end before that date. Only a Temporary Extension of Stay, capped at 3 months and requiring HDB approval, buys more time.

So an HDB tenant whose landlord has just sold is on a clock, not a lease. If your tenancy would otherwise have run past completion, the landlord needs your agreement to an early surrender, and that is a negotiation: rent abatement, a moving allowance, or the landlord absorbing the HDB reinstatement cost are all normal asks. Do not simply overhold, because holding over can expose you to double rent.

What changes	Private condo or landed	HDB flat
Does the lease survive the sale?	Yes, if 7 years or less and you are in occupation	No, vacant possession is required
Who is your landlord after completion?	The buyer	Tenancy has ended
Typical runway from sale to handover	To your lease end date	About 8 weeks from HDB accepting the application
Extension possible?	Not needed	Temporary Extension of Stay, 3 months maximum
Who owes reinstatement?	You, to the new owner	You, to the original landlord

How much notice do I have to give for viewings?

Whatever your tenancy agreement says, and nothing more. Singapore has no statutory notice period for entry. The CEA prescribed tenancy templates settle on 48 hours' written notice for viewings and prior appointment for inspections and repairs, which is the benchmark most agents will accept as reasonable.

Sale viewings are more intrusive than the usual end-of-lease ones, because they can run for months rather than the final few weeks. Three things are worth fixing in writing early: a window (for example Saturdays, 11am to 4pm), a maximum number of viewings a week, and a rule that the landlord's agent, not a buyer's agent alone, accompanies every visit. Our full guide on when a landlord can enter a rented home covers the refusal position if notice is ignored.

Can the new owner raise the rent or ask me to leave?

Not during the term. The buyer inherits the lease on its existing terms, so the rent, the expiry date and every clause stay as written until the lease ends. What the buyer can do is decline to renew, or invoke a clause the lease already contains, such as a sale clause or a diplomatic clause.

Read your agreement for a sale or "landlord's break" clause before you concede anything. Many Singapore leases contain one, typically allowing the landlord to terminate on two months' written notice if the property is sold, sometimes with one month's rent as compensation. If yours has no such clause, an owner-occupier buyer has no route to remove you early other than paying you to go. That is a negotiation you are entitled to have, and early termination on agreed terms is the clean way to record it.

One administrative point: if you agree a new or varied tenancy with the buyer rather than continuing the old one, it is a fresh document and stamp duty applies again at 0.4% of the total rent for a lease of 4 years or less, payable within 14 days of signing.

What happens to my reinstatement obligation?

It follows the property to the new owner, unchanged. The reinstatement clause is a covenant with reference to the subject matter of the lease, so it runs with the reversion under the 1886 Act. You owe reinstatement to the condition recorded at your move-in, not to whatever standard the new owner has in mind for their own occupation.

This is where sales go wrong at handover. The buyer never saw the unit on your move-in day. They saw it at a viewing, furnished and lived in, and they may assume the shelving, the feature wall and the aircon in the study were always there. Your protection is the move-in inventory and the photographs taken with the original landlord. Send a copy to the new owner in the same email that confirms the deposit transfer, before there is anything to argue about.

Budget on the same basis as any other handover. Condo reinstatement runs about S$4 to S$8 per square foot, or roughly S$3,000 to S$12,000 for most units, and an HDB flat is usually S$800 to S$4,000. The line between a chargeable restoration and fair wear and tear does not shift because the owner changed.

What if the new owner withholds my deposit?

The Small Claims Tribunals hear it. The SCT covers disputes under residential tenancy agreements not exceeding 2 years, with a claim limit of S$20,000, or S$30,000 where both parties sign a Memorandum of Consent. Filing is cheap and lawyers are not permitted, so a documented claim is realistic to run yourself.

Bring the chain of evidence: the original tenancy agreement, the move-in inventory with dated photos, the email confirming the deposit passed to the buyer, the move-out photos, and any reinstatement invoice. A deposit dispute after a sale usually collapses into one question, which is what the unit looked like on day one, and the party holding that record wins it.

Your first week checklist

Confirm the property type. Private means your lease survives; HDB means the clock is running to vacant possession.
Re-read the lease for a sale clause, a break clause and the notice period for viewings.
Get the deposit position in writing before completion, naming the party who will return it.
Send your move-in inventory to the new owner so the reinstatement baseline is agreed while everyone is still friendly.
Agree a viewing window in writing rather than fielding ad hoc requests for months.

Handover moved up because of a sale?

Send us the unit and the new completion date. We will quote the reinstatement against your actual move-in inventory, not the new owner's wish list, and work to the date the sale has given you.

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Legal positions are taken from the current consolidated text of the Land Titles Act 1993 and the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act 1886 on Singapore Statutes Online, and from HDB's published resale completion rules. Transaction figures are URA's second quarter 2026 real estate statistics, released 24 July 2026. Cost ranges are indicative 2026 market ranges; confirm against a written quote.

References & further reading

Authoritative Singapore sources for further reading. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and it does not cover commercial leases or tenancies exceeding 7 years. Confirm current rules with the relevant authority.