CEA's 3-deals-in-3-years rule: what it means for Singapore's 38,600 agents

What happened

On 28 July 2026, Senior Minister of State Sun Xueling announced at the Singapore Estate Agents Conference that the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) will move to a three-year licensing and registration cycle and introduce a new Currency Requirement from 1 January 2027.

• The cycle. Registrations renewed at the end of 2026 will run from 1 January 2027 to 31 December 2029. Annual licence and registration fees are unchanged; the application fee is paid once per cycle ($60 for a salesperson, $120 for an agency licence).
• The rule. To renew for the next cycle, a salesperson must complete at least three qualifying property transactions within the three years, or pass a Refresher Examination. Anyone who misses both must redo the RES course and exam to return.
• What counts. CEA lists residential, commercial and industrial deals, foreign property sales and en bloc sales. For residential deals, one salesperson per side is recognised.
• Exceptions. New joiners are exempt in their first calendar year, then need a pro-rated two deals in the remaining two years. Agents with extenuating circumstances, such as serious illness, can ask CEA for a review.
• Training still applies. The rule sits on top of the 16 CPD hours a year required since 1 January 2026. The Currency Requirement does not apply to this year's renewal, but the 2026 CPD hours do.

The Districtpedia view

The rule is modest on paper: one deal a year. But CEA's own public transaction records show how many agents sit below that pace today. Across the 36 months to October 2026, 30.9% of registered agents had no recorded transaction at all, and another 13.6% had only one or two.

The gap is not just newcomers. Among agents registered before 2024, who had the full three years to trade, 40.1% were still below three deals. This points to a large group of part-time or dormant registrations, which the new rule is designed to thin out.

For consumers, the change should mean that the agent you meet in 2030 has traded recently. For agencies, it turns headcount into a compliance question: every inactive name on the roster now needs a plan, either coaching to three deals, a refresher exam, or an exit.

Two cautions on our numbers. CEA's public dataset covers residential sales and rentals, so commercial, industrial and en bloc specialists will look less active here than they are. And the dataset can list more than one salesperson on the same side of a residential deal, while CEA will recognise only one. Treat our figure as a pace check, not a compliance verdict.