True. At the end of the day, if u fail to get the unit the agent will refund back the booking fee. I believe this booking fee got to do with agent comission. If any of the applicants that come from them manage to get dbkl or ministry approval perhaps developer will pay them commission per head.

The ministry might want to distant themselve from this sort of activity because booking fee is illegal in the first place according to housing act and collecting the fee before getting apdl is also illegal.

So its advisable to apply direct tru portal and wait for ur luck. Once u got approved then can pay dp.