Last updated 3 October 2026 — by Adrian Tan, SDM. Marketing guidance, not legal advice. Developers should confirm current licence conditions with the Controller of Housing before any launch campaign.
Developers sold 10,815 private homes in Singapore in 2025, excluding executive condominiums, up from 6,469 in 2024, according to URA. Almost every one of those sales started with an advertisement: a portal banner, a Meta lead ad, a YouTube walkthrough, a site hoarding or a showflat brochure.
Every one of those advertisements sits under a short, specific and widely misremembered set of rules. Ask a marketing team what a new-launch ad has to carry and you will usually hear “the TOP date and the number of units”. Neither is on the list. What the law actually requires is five particulars, a ban on two kinds of suggestion, a misleading-ad offence that reaches anyone who publishes the ad, and a separate rulebook for show units that is far more detailed than most people realise.
This guide works through the Housing Developers Rules, the Show Unit Rules, the line on pre-launch marketing, and what changes when estate agents run the campaign — with a checklist at the end.
The framework in one paragraph
Housing development in Singapore needs a licence from the Controller of Housing under the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act 1965. Developing without one carries a fine of up to $100,000 plus up to five years’ imprisonment (s 4(8)). Section 22(2)(a) gives the Minister power to make rules regulating developers’ advertisements, and those rules are in the Housing Developers Rules (rr 2–7). Show units have their own instrument, the Housing Developers (Show Unit) Rules 2015. Licence conditions, which breach carries a fine of up to $100,000 or up to three years’ imprisonment (s 4(9)), cover the pre-launch restrictions. Estate agents marketing a project add a further layer from the Council for Estate Agencies.
URA issues two kinds of licence. A sale licence allows construction and sale once all approvals, including building plan approval, are in place. A no-sale licence allows construction only. That distinction is the hinge of the pre-launch rules below.
What counts as an “advertisement”
Rule 2 defines an advertisement as any representation — writing, still or moving pictures, a sign, symbol, or visual or audible message — used for “advertising, marketing, publicity or announcement”, in “any form, manner or medium (whether electronic or otherwise)”. That electronic wording came in with S 163/2012 from 18 May 2012, so there is no argument about whether it covers a Meta carousel, a TikTok tour, a Google responsive search ad or a WhatsApp broadcast. It does.
Rule 3: the five particulars every ad must carry
Every advertisement “made by or on behalf of a licensed housing developer” must include all five of the following (r 3). Radio and television advertisements are exempt.
| Rule | Required particular | What it looks like in practice |
|---|---|---|
| r 3(a) | The developer’s name and licence number | The licensed entity’s name, not only the project brand or the parent group |
| r 3(b) | The tenure of the land and any encumbrances | “99-year leasehold from [date]” or “Freehold”, plus encumbrances |
| r 3(c) | The expected date of vacant possession | A date, not “TOP soon” |
| r 3(d) | The expected date of legal completion (conveyance of legal title) | Often omitted entirely in social creative |
| r 3(e) | The location, including the lot number and Mukim or Town Subdivision | Legal description, not just “near the MRT” |
Three things are not on the list, despite what many briefs assume: the number of units, the project name as such, and the TOP date. The rule uses vacant possession and legal completion dates, which are different milestones from Temporary Occupation Permit. Briefing “TOP 2029” into every ad and leaving out the two dates the rule actually asks for gets the compliance exactly backwards.
The Controller of Housing may waive any of the advertising requirements (r 4), which is the route for a format that genuinely cannot carry the particulars. The waiver is the Controller’s to give; a media plan cannot assume it.
Fitting five particulars into a digital ad
The particulars are long and digital formats are short, and there is no format exemption beyond radio and TV. So treat the particulars as a fixed creative element:
- Static and carousel: a legible particulars band on the image itself, and again in the caption.
- Video: an end card held long enough to read, plus the particulars in the post copy.
- Search: this is the hard one. Check with the developer’s legal team whether to use extensions and the landing page, or seek the Controller’s view under r 4, rather than assuming the landing page cures the ad.
- Landing page: particulars above the fold, not in a footer accordion.
Rules 6 and 7: what an ad must not suggest or say
Rule 6 bans three kinds of suggestion in a developer’s advertisement:
- (a) patronage of the President or the President’s family;
- (b) any connection with a Government department, statutory body, or a public building or place;
- (c) “any attribute to which the housing developer cannot genuinely make a claim”.
Limb (b) is the one property creative tests most often. Leaning on a nearby government masterplan, a planned MRT line or a public landmark is common and usually fine as a factual location statement. Implying the project is connected with, endorsed by or part of that Government initiative is not. “Five minutes’ walk to the upcoming station” is location; “part of the new regional centre” invites the question of whether the developer can genuinely make that claim.
Rule 7 makes the whole regime enforceable. No person may publish, display or broadcast, or cause to be published, displayed or broadcast, an advertisement for a housing project that (a) contains anything false or misleading, (b) fails to meet r 3, or (c) breaches r 6. Because it says “no person”, it reaches the agency that built the ad, the media owner, and the estate agents running the campaign, not only the developer. Breaching any of the Rules is an offence carrying a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both (r 19), with the same penalty for abetment.
A note on “% sold” claims. We found no specific rule governing them. But developers must give the Controller project and sales information, including the number of units made available for sale (Act s 11(2)(a)), and the Controller may publish it (s 11(1)(c)). A “90% sold” headline that the developer’s own returns contradict is a straightforward r 7(a) problem, and the evidence is already on the regulator’s file. That is our inference from the two provisions, not a stated rule — but it is a reason to source every sales claim from the same numbers you report to URA.
The Show Unit Rules: the most detailed advertising rules in property
The Act defines a “show unit” as any representation or reproduction of a unit, or part of one, “built, or built and furnished”, for viewing by buyers or to promote sales (s 2). The Housing Developers (Show Unit) Rules 2015 then set out what the showflat and its collateral must do.
| Rule | Requirement |
|---|---|
| r 3 | Comply whenever the unit is open for viewing; lodge a declaration with the Controller before it opens |
| r 5 | A drawn-to-scale floor plan matching the approved building plan at the entrance, with area breakdowns for strata units (bedroom, balcony, bay window, PES, aircon ledge and so on), the unit address and the plan approval number and date |
| r 7 | The unit, furniture placement and decor must not misrepresent the actual unit, or suggest anything the approvals or the law do not allow |
| r 10 | A prominent notice listing all materials, finishes, fittings and appliances to be provided, with any difference from the show unit clearly described |
| r 11 | A partial show unit needs the Controller’s prior written approval |
| r 12 | Location plans to scale and accurate, showing streets and landmarks within 500 m — MRT stations, religious buildings, parks, schools, commercial and industrial buildings and HDB blocks; site plans and models to scale with all facilities, down to the substation and bin centre, displaying the plan approval number and date; displays updated within three working days of any change to approved plans |
| r 13 | Fine of up to $5,000, up to six months’ imprisonment, or both |
Two of these matter far beyond the showflat itself. The first is r 12’s 500-metre landmark list. It requires the location plan to show what is nearby, and the list includes things marketing would rather leave off: industrial buildings, places of worship, HDB blocks. A location map in the brochure, the e-brochure PDF or the project microsite that has been “cleaned up” to show only the MRT station and the mall is at odds with the instrument governing location plans shown to buyers.
The second is r 7 combined with the Act’s s 17A. The Controller can enter a show unit, photograph it, seize material, and direct the developer to fix it, publish information, or “refrain from displaying or advertising, or cease any display or advertisement of, the show unit” (s 17A(3)(c)). Ignoring a direction carries a fine of up to $10,000. A virtual tour or 3D walkthrough built from a showflat that misrepresents the actual unit inherits the problem, and s 17A gives the Controller a direct power to stop it being advertised.
You will often hear that the law requires an “artist’s impression” disclaimer. We could not find that phrase in the Act, the Rules or the Show Unit Rules. The real obligations are r 7 (no misrepresentation), r 10 (finishes notice and differences) and r 12 (accurate, to-scale plans and models). A disclaimer is good practice; it is not a substitute for those three.
Pre-launch marketing: the expression-of-interest line
The most commercially important limit is not in the Rules at all. It is a licence condition introduced by Controller of Housing Circular URA/COH/Circular-2020-03 from 28 September 2020. Under it, a developer must not enter “any agreement or arrangement not being an option to purchase prescribed under the Housing Developers Rules, and whether with or without the receipt of consideration, that gives or has the effect of giving any person… a right or entitlement to be given an option to purchase”.
In marketing terms, that rules out the “register now to secure priority” mechanic that gives a registrant an entitlement to an option. Collecting genuine expressions of interest is one thing; a VIP queue that functions as a right to buy is another. The same circular says options may not be re-issued to the same buyer for the same unit within 12 months, allows 25% of the booking fee to be forfeited if an option is not exercised, and allows option validity to be extended to 12 weeks on application. The circular sits in URA’s archived-circulars section, so confirm the current standard conditions with URA before relying on the detail.
Estate agents get the same line from the other side. CEA’s Practice Circular PC 04-13 says agents marketing a project not yet approved for sale must not imply it is approved, must prominently show wording such as “pending approval for sale” or “seeking indication of interest”, must not collect cheques or conduct sales before approval, and must not use the words “New Launch”, “Register for VVIP Preview”, “Sales Team” or “Sales Hotline”. Anyone who has seen a pre-launch Meta campaign will recognise every one of those phrases.
The booking mechanics that marketing promises touch
Promotional copy often makes promises about the booking process, so it helps to know what the Rules fix. The booking fee for an option must be at least 5% and at most 10% of the price (r 8). The option must be in Form 2, is granted when the developer accepts the booking fee, and cannot be assigned (r 10). Before taking a booking fee the developer must give the prescribed particulars, give an anti-money-laundering due-diligence notice (added from 28 June 2023), and obtain a written acknowledgment. Only one live option may exist per unit, and an option is valid for three weeks after the title deeds and the sale and purchase agreement are delivered (r 11).
So “book with just 1%” is not an offer a developer can make under r 8, and “transferable option” is not a feature an option can have under r 10.
When estate agents run the campaign
Most new-launch digital spend is not the developer’s own. Marketing agencies and their salespeople run large volumes of search, social and portal advertising for projects, and they carry their own duties under the CEA’s Code of Ethics and Professional Client Care, in the First Schedule to the Estate Agents (Estate Agency Work) Regulations 2010.
- Identity (para 12(1)–(2)): every ad must correctly state the agency’s and salesperson’s CEA-registered names, contact numbers, and licence and registration numbers. Newspaper classifieds are exempt from the numbers (para 12(3)).
- Content (para 12(4)): no inaccurate, false or misleading content; accurate property descriptions; substantiated claims; client consent; no prices other than those the client instructed; no transaction data without consent; and removal once the property is no longer available.
- CEA Practice Guidelines PG 2/2011: yield or capital-gain claims need a credible source, definitions and the time period; footnotes at least 8-point; no altered photos; any view shown must be from the actual unit; and agents marketing new projects must comply with the Housing Developers Act.
Because Housing Developers Rules r 7 applies to “no person”, an agent’s ad for a developer project has to carry the developer’s r 3 particulars and the agent’s CEA identity details. Two sets of mandatory information in one creative is the norm, not the exception.
The case that shows how this is enforced
The clearest recent enforcement is on the agent side. In October 2023 a CEA Disciplinary Committee fined an ERA salesperson $14,000 and suspended him for five months for three online ads, run between December 2021 and February 2022, advertising new-launch units at prices $260,000 to more than $1 million below the developers’ actual prices — a breach of the para 12(4)(a) prohibition on inaccurate and misleading content. He reoffended: in October 2025 he was fined $28,000 and suspended for six months. In December 2025 CEA issued ERA a Letter of Censure for failing to vet his ads, despite having advised the agency’s key executive officer in March 2022.
The lesson for anyone running performance campaigns is about the lure price. A below-market headline price is the oldest click-through tactic in property, and here it produced two suspensions and a censure of the agency for weak supervision. We found no URA prosecution of a developer for a misleading ad between 2023 and 2026, but the r 7 offence applies to the same conduct.
Commercial projects and executive condominiums
Commercial property is different. The Sale of Commercial Properties Act 1979 bars sale until the Building Authority has approved the plans (s 3(1)), requires the prescribed option form (s 4), and caps the booking fee at 10% (Rules r 3). The Act allows rules regulating advertisements (s 10(2)(a)), but the current Rules contain no advertising provision. Commercial launch ads therefore have no statutory particulars list like r 3, and fall back on general consumer-protection and advertising-code standards. Our guide to the Trade Descriptions Act and misleading claims covers that baseline.
Executive condominiums are developed by licensed housing developers, and URA’s developer survey covers EC projects. The Executive Condominium Housing Scheme Act 1996 has no advertising provision. Our reading is that the Housing Developers Rules apply to EC advertising as they do to private condominiums, but no source we found states this expressly, so confirm with the Controller. EC ads also meet a specific pressure: buyers have eligibility conditions under the EC Act (s 5 restricts what an applicant may own or have sold), so eligibility claims in creative should be checked against the Act rather than paraphrased.
A launch-campaign advertising checklist
- Licence stage. Is there a sale licence and building plan approval? If not, pre-sale wording only, and no mechanic giving a right to an option.
- The five particulars. Name and licence number, tenure and encumbrances, vacant possession date, legal completion date, and the legal location — in every non-broadcast ad.
- No borrowed authority. Nothing implying Government, statutory-body or Presidential connection, and no attribute the developer cannot genuinely claim.
- Every number sourced. Prices as instructed; “% sold” from the figures reported to URA; yields with source, definition and period.
- Visuals true to the unit. Views from the actual unit, no altered photos, renders and walkthroughs consistent with the approved plans and the finishes notice.
- Location plans complete. To scale, with landmarks within 500 m, including the ones you would rather leave out.
- Booking promises within the Rules. Booking fee 5–10%, options not assignable, three-week validity.
- Agent identity. CEA-registered names and numbers on every agent ad.
- Update discipline. Displays updated within three working days of a plan change; take ads down when units are sold.
For channel execution, see our guides to Google Ads for property agents and SEO for property agents; for hoardings and site signage, our outdoor advertising and signage rules.
Frequently asked questions
What must a new launch property ad include in Singapore?
Under rule 3 of the Housing Developers Rules, every advertisement by or on behalf of a licensed housing developer must include the developer’s name and licence number, the tenure of the land and any encumbrances, the expected date of vacant possession, the expected date of legal completion, and the location including the lot number and Mukim or Town Subdivision. Radio and television ads are exempt.
Does a property ad have to show the TOP date or the number of units?
No. Neither is among the rule 3 particulars. The rule requires the expected vacant possession and legal completion dates, which are separate milestones from the Temporary Occupation Permit. The number of units is not a required particular.
What is the penalty for a misleading developer advertisement?
Rule 7 prohibits any person from publishing an ad for a housing project that is false or misleading, omits the rule 3 particulars or breaches rule 6. Breaching the Rules carries a fine of up to $5,000, imprisonment of up to six months, or both, under rule 19. Breaching licence conditions under the Act carries up to $100,000 or three years.
Can a developer take registrations before a project is approved for sale?
A licence condition introduced by URA in 2020 bars developers from any arrangement, other than the prescribed option to purchase, that gives a person a right or entitlement to be given an option. Agents marketing unapproved projects must show wording such as pending approval for sale and must not use phrases such as New Launch or Register for VVIP Preview, under CEA Practice Circular PC 04-13.
Do the show unit rules apply to virtual tours?
The Show Unit Rules govern the physical show unit and the plans and models shown to buyers. A virtual tour built from a show unit that misrepresents the actual unit raises the same rule 7 issue, and section 17A of the Act lets the Controller direct a developer to stop displaying or advertising a show unit.
Do agents marketing a developer project need their own details on the ad?
Yes. Under paragraph 12 of the CEA Code of Ethics and Professional Client Care, agent ads must state the agency’s and salesperson’s CEA-registered names, contact numbers, and licence and registration numbers. Because the Housing Developers Rules apply to any person publishing a housing-project ad, the developer’s particulars are needed too.
The takeaway
Singapore’s developer advertising rules are short enough to fit on one page and specific enough to audit: five particulars, three banned suggestions, a misleading-ad offence that binds anyone who publishes, and show-unit rules that reach every location plan and model. The pre-launch line sits in licence conditions and CEA circulars rather than the Rules, but it is just as firm. And the enforcement record says the riskiest line in any campaign is the headline price.
If you market property launches and want campaigns built with the particulars and the CEA identity layer designed into every format, that is what our performance marketing team in Singapore does; see our client case studies. Start with our complete guide to performance marketing in Singapore, then digital marketing for property and real estate and the rules for short-term rental advertising.
