Exam information

RES Exam Resources: The Official Sources Worth Reading

Last reviewed 11 October 2026

Almost everything the RES examination tests is published free by the agency that administers it. Course notes condense that material, but they go out of date between printings, and the examination tests the law and policy in force on the day you sit. These are the sources worth going to directly, with a note on what each is actually useful for and where each one is unreliable as a revision tool.

Start with CEA’s own examination pages

The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) publishes the examination syllabus, the format, the fee schedule, the sitting dates, the registration mechanics and a set of sample questions with answers. The syllabus is the single most important document in your preparation, because it is the statement of what you can be asked: it sets out each competency unit, each unit within it, and the learning outcomes beneath those. If a topic is not traceable to a learning outcome, it cannot be examined.

The sample questions are undervalued. CEA annotates each one with the competency unit, the learning outcome and the cognitive level it is testing, which tells you not only the style of the questions but the depth expected — whether a unit is examined at the level of recall, of understanding, or of application to a scenario. Work through them early, not as a last-minute check.

CEA’s pages for aspiring salespersons also carry the current list of Approved Course Providers, the registration criteria, the exemption table, and the results and appeals process. The list of providers changes, so check it on CEA’s site rather than relying on a course brochure. NTUC LearningHub, as CEA’s appointed examination administrator, publishes the examination rules and regulations, the sitting schedule and the fee table; its rules document is the authority on what you may bring into the hall.

The regulatory material for CU3

CU3 is examined on the regulatory framework itself, and that framework is published in full. The Estate Agents Act 2010 and its subsidiary legislation are on Singapore Statutes Online, free and searchable, and reading the definitions in the Act — estate agent, salesperson, estate agency work, property — is more reliable than reading a paraphrase of them.

CEA’s codes of conduct page carries the Code of Ethics and Professional Client Care, the Code of Practice for Estate Agents and the Professional Service Manual. These are short enough to read properly and they are the direct source of a great many Paper 2 questions: what must be disclosed, what must appear in an advertisement, how offers must be communicated, what a salesperson must not do with transaction monies. CEA’s practice guidelines and circulars page carries the detailed guidance built on top of the codes, including guidance on advertising, and its page on preventing money laundering and terrorism financing covers an area that has grown in prominence.

Two further CEA resources repay a visit. The prescribed estate agency agreements and checklists are published as templates, and reading the actual forms is the fastest way to learn what they cover. And CEA’s disciplinary proceedings and court prosecution pages publish real cases — the quickest way to see which breaches matter in practice and what the consequences are.

HDB, URA, IRAS, MAS, CPF and SLA for CU4

CU4 is almost entirely built on policy published by the agencies that set it, and policy is exactly the material that dates fastest in a set of course notes.

HDB’s own pages are authoritative on eligibility, the Minimum Occupation Period, the resale process, the HDB Flat Eligibility letter, the Intent to Sell, grants and the rules for renting out a flat or a bedroom. Where HDB publishes a step-by-step resale process, learn that sequence from HDB rather than from a summary. URA covers planning: the Master Plan with its zoning and gross plot ratio, change of use, the licensing of housing developers and the rules for the sale of uncompleted private property. URA’s REALIS and its published transaction data are also the source behind questions on reading and interpreting market statistics.

IRAS publishes the stamp duties — Buyer’s Stamp Duty, Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty, Seller’s Stamp Duty and lease duty — along with property tax rates and annual value, and its e-Tax guides explain the mechanics with worked examples. MAS publishes the loan rules: the Total Debt Servicing Ratio and Mortgage Servicing Ratio, the interest rate floors used in the computation, loan-to-value limits and tenure caps, with its own worked examples on the TDSR explainer pages. CPF covers the use of Ordinary Account savings for housing, accrued interest, refunds on sale and the Home Protection Scheme. The Singapore Land Authority covers title searches, the Land Betterment Charge, foreign ownership of residential property and the renting of State land.

For all of these, prefer the agency’s own page to any aggregator. A figure on an agency page carries a date and a source; the same figure on a property portal often carries neither.

The statutes themselves

Singapore Statutes Online publishes the full text of every Act and its subsidiary legislation, free, with revision dates. For the RES examination you do not need to read statutes cover to cover, and attempting it is a poor use of revision time. Use them in two specific ways instead.

First, for definitions and short operative provisions. Where a unit turns on what a term means — “estate agency work” under the Estate Agents Act, the requirements for a valid will under the Wills Act, the formalities for a contract concerning land — the statutory wording is both shorter and more exact than a textbook gloss.

Second, to settle a conflict. If two sets of notes disagree, or a figure in a set of notes looks out of date, the Act or the regulation decides it. The Acts that come up most often are the Estate Agents Act 2010, the Land Titles Act 1993, the Land Titles (Strata) Act, the Housing and Development Act, the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act, the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act, the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, the Conveyancing and Law of Property Act, the Civil Law Act and the Wills Act.

What to be careful with

Three categories of material deserve caution.

Agency blogs, property portals and forum threads are the commonest source of wrong answers in RES revision. They are often written for consumers rather than candidates, they rarely date their figures, and cooling measures, loan limits, grants and income ceilings change often enough that an undated article is worthless. If you cannot trace a figure to an agency page, do not learn it.

Second-hand question banks and “past paper” compilations circulating online are not released by CEA, and the older ones test syllabus material that has since changed. Use practice questions whose explanations cite a source you can check.

Finally, mind the dates when you are preparing. Examinations in 2025 and 2026 are set on the current 2017 version 5 syllabus, and a revised syllabus applies from 1 January 2027 — so a 2026 candidate working from 2027 material, or the reverse, is studying the wrong document. CEA has confirmed that the format and duration do not change in 2027; the content does. And remember the scoping rule that works in your favour: candidates are not tested on government policy changes announced or implemented within one month before the examination date.

Terms to know

Singapore Statutes Online: The free official database of Singapore legislation, publishing the current text of Acts and subsidiary legislation with revision dates.
Practice guidelines and circulars: CEA’s published guidance to estate agents and salespersons on how the codes of conduct apply in specific situations, such as advertising.
REALIS: URA’s real estate information system, the source of the private property transaction and market statistics the syllabus expects candidates to be able to interpret.
Cognitive level: The depth at which a learning outcome is examined — recall, understanding or application — which CEA tags on each of its published sample questions.

Frequently asked questions

Does CEA release past RES exam papers?

CEA publishes sample questions with answers on its examination preparation page, annotated with the competency unit, learning outcome and cognitive level each one tests. It does not release full past papers, so compilations described as past papers circulating online are not official and may test syllabus material that has changed.

Do I need to buy study notes, or are the official sources enough?

The mandatory RES course with a CEA Approved Course Provider comes with its own materials, and that course is a registration requirement. The official agency sources are then best used to verify and update what the notes say, particularly on rates, ceilings and procedures, which change between printings.

Where do I check the figures that keep changing?

Go to the agency that sets each one: IRAS for stamp duties and property tax, MAS for the debt servicing ratios, interest rate floors and loan-to-value limits, HDB for flat eligibility and resale rules, URA for planning and the sale of uncompleted property, CPF for the use of CPF savings in housing, and SLA for title searches and the Land Betterment Charge.

Which syllabus should I study from?

The one in force for your sitting. Examinations in 2025 and 2026 use the current 2017 version 5 syllabus, and examinations from 1 January 2027 use the revised syllabus. The examination format and duration are the same under both; the content and learning outcomes differ.

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Disclaimer: All questions on this portal are created to aid candidates in preparing for and passing the Real Estate Salesperson (RES) Examination. They are not official examination questions and are not representative of, endorsed by or affiliated with the Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) or NTUC LearningHub. Laws, rates and policies change — always verify against official sources.