More help for First-Time home buyers

3Date issued : 30 Aug 2010

During the National Day Rally on 29 Aug 2010, PM Lee Hsien Loong announced several measures to ensure that public housing will always remain within the reach of Singaporeans who are buying their first home. This will be achieved by increasing housing supply and dampening demand from those who are not in urgent need of housing.

2This press release provides details of the measures to:

(a) Allow households earning between $8,000 and $10,000, to buy new DBSS flats with a $30,000 CPF Housing Grant;
(b) Increase the supply of new flats, Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats, and Executive Condominiums (EC);
(c) Shorten the completion time of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats;
(d) Increase the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for non-subsidised flats to 5 years; and
(e) Disallow concurrent ownership of both HDB flats and private residential properties within the MOP.
More Housing Supply and Choices for First-Time Home Buyers

3HDB will ramp up the supply of new flats, DBSS flats and ECs substantially to meet the housing needs of first-time homebuyers.

4HDB will be offering more than 16,000 new flats in 2010. If demand remains strong, HDB is prepared to launch up to 22,000 new flats in 2011. These numbers are substantial. Over two years, HDB will offer more new flats than the total flats in Toa Payoh town today (35,400 flats).

5In addition, HDB will release more land for tender in 2010 to yield an estimated supply of 3,000 DBSS 1 flats and 4,000 ECs. In 2011, HDB will release land sites for another 4,000 DBSS flats and 4,000 ECs, if demand is sustained. This injection of 7,000 DBSS flats and 8,000 ECs over two years is also significant. In comparison, 4,000 DBSS flats and 10,000 ECs have been launched for public sale so far.

6Currently, first-timer households with monthly income of between $8,000 and $10,000 may buy an EC with a CPF Housing Grant of $30,000. To widen their housing options, HDB will allow these households to buy new DBSS flats with a CPF Housing Grant of $30,000 2 Similar to the purchase of ECs, the HDB concessionary loan will not be available for these buyers. This revision will be applicable to DBSS projects launched for public sale after 30 Aug 2010.

7To help households get their new flats faster, HDB has also streamlined the BTO processes to allow flat buyers collect keys to their new homes 6 months earlier. Buyers of projects launched in mid-2011 onwards will generally need to wait for 2.5 years 3 to collect the keys instead of the current 3 years.

HDB Flats for Owner-Occupation

8HDB flats are meant for long-term owner-occupation. HDB will increase the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) to reinforce this and dampen demand from those who are not in urgent need of housing.

9First, the MOP of non-subsidised flats for resale and subletting of flat will be increased from three to five years. Second, buyers of non-subsidised flats will be disallowed from concurrently owning both an HDB flat and a private residential property within the MOP 4. Private property owners who buy a non-subsidised HDB flat must now dispose of their private residential property within six months from the date of flat purchase. This will help ensure that buyers purchase HDB flats only when they have the intent of staying in it for long term and ensure equitable treatment for all HDB flat lessees during their MOP. Ownership of private properties by HDB lessees will be allowed after the MOP.


10The revised changes are summarised in Table 1, and will apply to resale transactions where applications are received by HDB from 30 Aug 2010 onwards.

Table 1: Changes for Non-subsidised Flats*

Current Revised
Resale 3 years 5 years
Subletting 3 years 5 years
Investment in Private Residential Property After Purchase of Non-Subsidised Flat No Restriction 5 years
Disposal of Existing Private Residential Property After Purchase of Non-Subsidised Flat Not Applicable Within 6 months from Date of Purchase
Note: * Resale flat bought without CPF housing grant. The MOP will be computed from the effective date of purchase of the non-subsidised flats.