Property owners can sell their units on their own, or appoint a real estate agent (i.e. put up for sale) or sell through an auction.

If you intend to appoint a real estate agent to sell your property, remember to appoint a licensed real estate agent and sign a "Real Estate Agency Agreement" with the agent, and pay attention to the following matters when signing the agreement.

Whether the form of commission chosen is "non-exclusive" or "exclusive". If the form of commission is exclusive, even if you sell your property through another real estate agent, the exclusive agent may charge you a commission. If the latter is the case, the agent must truthfully inform both parties and disclose to both parties the amount or percentage of commission to be received from the other party.

The seller may deal directly with the buyer, but both parties will usually appoint an estate agent and go through the following stages of the transaction.

The seller approaches an estate agent/realtor to sell the property (i.e., a "listing") and the buyer approaches an estate agent to search for a suitable property. Both parties may appoint more than one estate agent.

The buyer looks at the property and bargains with the seller or his estate agent. The seller and the buyer enter into a provisional agreement for sale and purchase of the selected property, which is usually provided by the estate agent, and the buyer also pays a provisional deposit (commonly known as a "fine deposit").

The seller's solicitor drafts the formal sale and purchase agreement, which is reviewed by the buyer's solicitor. After both parties have reached an agreement on the terms of the agreement through the solicitor, the formal sale and purchase agreement is signed and the buyer is required to pay an additional deposit (commonly known as the "deposit").

The buyer's solicitor drafts the assignment, the seller's solicitor reviews it and the parties sign the assignment.

If a consensus is reached with the buyer on the sale price of the flat, a provisional sale and purchase agreement will be signed by the buyer and the seller.

This is a valid and binding legal document that must be complied with by both the buyer and the seller.

If either party fails to complete the transaction, they may seek compensation under the Provisional Agreement.

The Provisional Agreement of Sale and Purchase must contain certain terms, such as the address and price of the property, the amount of the provisional deposit (fine deposit), the amount of the additional deposit (large deposit), when the formal Agreement of Sale and Purchase will be signed, and the date of completion of the transaction.

The following links detail the terms and conditions generally included in a Provisional Agreement for Sale and Purchase.

A Formal Agreement of Sale and Purchase is drafted by a lawyer based on a previously signed Provisional Agreement of Sale and Purchase and is used to replace the Provisional Agreement of Sale and Purchase and contains more detailed terms.

You may include special terms in the formal agreement that are not inconsistent with the provisional agreement.