Why the “top producer” on the flyer may not have sold a flat in your block
A small group of agents really does dominate Singapore's home sales. But when you break the CEA record down by property type and by town, the names at the very top are not lone star sellers or local specialists. They are teams, logging everyone's deals under one leader. Covering Jan 2017 to Mar 2026.
The headline: the top 20% really do most of the selling
Across 273,099 recorded home sales, the busiest 20% of agents account for about 69.7% of them. That much matches the intuition behind every “top producer” flyer. The interesting part is what happens when you ask which sales, and who the top names actually are. The answer undercuts the flyer. This is a companion to our study of all 730,000 CEA transactions.
1. The concentration is not condo lead-farming
A common theory is that the top agents just farm leads in high-turnover condos. The data says the opposite. Concentration holds across every property type, and it is highest in HDB resale, the most commoditised market of all, and lowest in private condo and EC resale. If condo-farming were the story, condos would be the most concentrated. They are the least.
| Segment | Recorded sales | Top 1% do | Top 20% do |
|---|---|---|---|
| HDB resale | 188,979 | 18.9% | 72.4% |
| Private resale (condo/EC) | 51,573 | 10.9% | 60.8% |
| New launch | 23,027 | 15.3% | 65.9% |
| Landed resale | 9,394 | 15.1% | 57.7% |
Share of each segment's recorded sales handled by its busiest 1% and 20% of agents, Jan 2017 to Mar 2026.
2. The busiest HDB agents are not local specialists
If the most concentrated market is HDB resale, are the top names just block specialists who farm one estate? No. We took the top 1% of HDB resale agents (105 of them) and looked at how spread their deals are by town. A genuine local specialist would dominate one or two towns. These do the opposite.
The median top agent is credited with 270 HDB resale deals across 23 of 26 towns, with their biggest single town only 19% of their volume. Only 8 of the 105 do even half their deals in one town, while 80 of them spread so thin that no single town is even 30% of their record. At least one is credited with sales in all 26 towns. No individual personally closes that many flats across the whole island.
3. The mechanism: teams logged under one name
Singapore agents work in teams, and a deal is often recorded under the team leader rather than the colleague who handled it. That is what the island-wide spread shows from the geography angle, and the calendar shows the same thing: the record contains a single agent with 120 HDB resale deals logged in one month, which is physically impossible for one person. 269 agent-months in the data exceed what an individual could close alone.
We handle this openly rather than hide it. Our AgentScore caps implausible single-month volume so parked team deals cannot inflate a ranking, and any profile whose record contains such a month carries a visible team-attributed volume flag. The full method and its limits are on our trust and data page.
What this means if you are selling
A “top producer” badge or a high league-table rank often measures a team brand, not the person who will actually handle your sale. The colleague who turns up at your flat may have a thin personal record, even if the name on the sign is near the top of a leaderboard.
The fix is the same as always: judge on the record, in your area, recently. Ask how many homes this specific person has sold in yourtown in the last year, not what the team closed island-wide. You can check any agent's real CEA record here, or get a free shortlist of the agents who genuinely sell properties like yours.
Frequently asked questions
Are the 'top' property agents in Singapore actually the best?
Not necessarily. The top end of the league tables is dominated by teams that log every member's deals under one leader's name. The busiest 1% of HDB resale agents are each credited with a median of 270 sales across 23 of Singapore's 26 HDB towns, which no single person could personally close. A high deal count can reflect a team brand rather than an individual's work.
What does 'top producer' mean on an agent's marketing?
It is a self-applied label, not a verified metric. There is no independent body that audits it. The public CEA transaction record is auditable, and it shows that the largest recorded volumes are spread so widely across the island that they are almost certainly team totals, not one person's sales.
Which property type has the most concentrated agent market?
HDB resale, by a clear margin. The top 20% of agents handle 72.4% of HDB resale, more than in private condo and EC resale (60.8%). If a small group were simply farming high-turnover condos, condo resale would be the most concentrated. It is the least, which points to team attribution in the HDB market rather than condo lead-farming.
How do I tell if an agent personally sells in my area?
Look at their CEA transaction record for recent sales (not rentals) in your specific town or district. A genuine local specialist will show repeated recent sales in one or two areas. A name credited with deals across the whole island is usually a team. You can check any agent's record on FairComparisons before you sign.
See who actually sells in your town
Every ranking is built on real CEA sale transactions in that area, recency-weighted, with team-attributed volume capped. Not on advertising.
Methodology and caveats
Based on the public CEA salesperson transaction records, Jan 2017 to Mar 2026. “Home sales” means resale, new-sale and sub-sale transactions; rentals are excluded. Concentration is the share of a segment's sales recorded by its busiest 1%, 10% and 20% of agents, counted only among agents with at least one sale in that segment. Town spread is measured for the top 1% of HDB resale agents by volume.
Team attribution is the key caveat and the central point: because deals can be logged under a team leader, a single name can carry volume that several people produced. We treat that as a signal to surface, not a number to trust at face value, which is why high single-month volumes are capped in the AgentScore and flagged on profiles. We set out every limitation on our trust and data page.
Source: CEA salesperson transaction records and public register. Analysis by FairComparisons.
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