Speech by Minister Desmond Lee for National Development and Minister-in-Charge of Social Services Integration, at the Committee of Supply Debate on Tues, 2 March 2023, in Parliament
Mar 2, 2023
AFFORDABLE AND ACCESSIBLE HOMES FOR ALL
Introduction
1. Chairman, I thank Members for their cuts.
2. I will speak about public housing.
3. My colleague Minister Indranee Rajah will cover our efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, and guide Singapore’s future development;
4. SMS Sim Ann will highlight what we are doing to rejuvenate heartland shops and foster gracious communities;
5. SMS Tan Kiat How will speak about the transformation of our Built Environment sector;
6. And finally, MOS Faishal will share more about our support for our seniors and the more vulnerable members of our society.
Affordable and Accessible Homes for All
7. Sir, last month, we reaffirmed this Government’s commitment to provide affordable and accessible housing for Singaporeans, and to keep improving our system.
8. The housing market had been stable for a number of years until COVID-19 severely disrupted our building programme.
9. We responded decisively to stabilise the situation, catch up on lost time, ramped up supply significantly and kept BTO prices almost flat in the last two years.
a. Therefore, even in 2022, virtually all first-timers who applied for BTOs in Non-Mature estates were successful within three tries.
b. And more than 8 in 10 BTO and resale flat buyers could service their HDB loans using their CPF contributions, with little to no cash outlay.
10. What else are we doing to provide affordable and accessible housing for Singaporeans?
First-Timer Families
11. Let me first start with how we will help young married couples get their first home.
12. Our first priority is to catch up on lost time, and deliver keys to Singaporeans who have been waiting for their homes. My colleagues have been working very hard, and we will turn the corner soon.
a. For Waterway Sunrise II, one of the more badly affected BTO projects, my colleagues at HDB, Expand Construction and Surbana Jurong rotated teams and worked overtime. They had to deal with unexpected challenges throughout the pandemic, like finding alternative sources of precast components when Malaysia implemented the Movement Control Order. Thanks to the team’s tremendous effort, we will finally deliver keys to all buyers by the end of this month.
b. You may also recall Greatearth, a former main contractor that ran into financial difficulties. When that happened, HDB quickly onboarded new contractors within a month. We have since completed three of the former Greatearth BTO projects, and delivered two of them ahead of their estimated completion dates.
c. This year, we are on track to complete and hand over keys to another 20,000 HDB flats across 22 housing projects. My colleagues and I would like to thank Singaporeans for their patience and understanding. We know the delays have disrupted many of their life plans.
13. Sir, across both the private sector and public market, we are expecting close to 100,000 home completions between 2023 and 2025, with almost 40,000 home completions this year alone – this will be the highest number of home completions in the last 5 years, including the pre-COVID years of 2018 and 2019.
a. This increased supply should help to alleviate some of the pressures in the rental market, which Mr Louis Chua spoke about. Households who have been waiting for their keys will leave the rental market for their new homes, and the new homes will provide some additional rental supply.
14. Second, we have significantly increased the supply of BTO flats.
a. We launched more than 23,000 flats last year, and will launch around the same number this year.
b. HDB is now building aggressively and on a very large scale, overseeing almost 100 BTO projects island-wide. By 2025, there will be more than 150 concurrent projects.
c. As I’ve said before, we will launch up to 100,000 new flats in total from 2021 to 2025.
15. Some Members have asked why we cannot build even more or build even faster. Let me explain, because the process is not straightforward. I will speak about land preparation, while my colleague SMS Tan Kiat How will speak about HDB’s productivity and innovation journey to build flats that are much taller than before, and more comprehensive than in the past.
a. Sir, we have land for housing, but many of these are not large tracts of undeveloped greenfield sites that we can readily move into today.
b. Land preparation is a long and complex process. For greenfield sites, we need to ensure that supporting infrastructure like roads and sewers are ready and conduct extensive soil investigations. For brownfield sites, we may need to relocate existing users, clear existing structures and divert services underground such as cables and sewers.
c. We also pay special attention to the ecological and heritage significance of sites, to ensure that we develop sensitively and sustainably. When needed, we engage extensively and conduct impact studies. This takes time. With the Old Police Academy at Mt Pleasant, for example, studies and engagements began in 2018, seven years before the launch of the first BTO project at this site in 2025.
d. So lots of forward planning and preparation is required before we can even begin construction, about 5 to 10 years of lead time, or even more in some cases.
e. As Singapore recovers from the pandemic, we should also remember that the pace of construction is going up significantly, not just for HDB but other organisations and businesses too. Resources, manpower, and construction capacity are not without their limits.
16. We would not have been able to ramp up our BTO supply by 35% in 2022, if not for our pre-pandemic plans to build Shorter Waiting Time flats.
a. Before COVID-19 hit, we were already planning to launch more flats with shorter waiting times of three years or less. These are flats that we build ahead of demand, a year or more before they are launched, and the land preparations would have started even earlier.
b. So when housing demand rose during the pandemic, we were able to tap on these sites which were meant for Shorter Waiting Time flats, bring their launch dates forward, and offer them in BTO exercises.
17. After we address the current supply crunch, we will get back on track to launch more Shorter Waiting Time flats from 2024 onwards.
a. By 2025, we plan to return to pre-COVID levels, to launch around 2,000 to 3,000 of such flats per year.
18. Third, we will have to lend a stronger helping hand to younger married couples and families who are trying to buy their first home.
a. Throughout our Forward Singapore Housing Conversations, calls to give them more support came across loud and clear.
19. Today, we already set aside the majority of our BTO flat supply for first-timers – at least 95% of the 4-room or larger flat supply in both Mature estates and Non-Mature estates.
a. First-timers are also given two ballots, compared to one for second-timers.
20. But first-timers are a diverse group, as they include all eligible Singaporeans who have not enjoyed a housing subsidy before. There are some who may have owned private property, some who had purchased a resale flat without taking housing grants and subsidies, as well as couples who are planning to get married.
First-Timer (Parents & Married Couples)
21. Among this diverse group, we need to give stronger support to young married couples and parents.
a. One of the participants in our Housing Conversations told us that it is “hard to feel like a family or think about having kids if you don’t have your own home”.
b. We fully recognise this. Having a home of their own will provide a stable environment for newly married couples to set up their families;
c. And parents want to give their young children a conducive environment.
d. These young married couples and parents also probably have shorter work experience, so they might not have sufficient savings to afford other housing options at that time.
22. So we will introduce a new category – First-Timer (Parents & Married Couples) – who will enjoy enhanced support when they apply for a new HDB flat.
a. Who will be in this group?
b. First-timer families with children aged 18 and below, as well as young married couples aged 40 and below, who are embarking on their homeownership journey.
23. They must also not have owned or sold any residential property before, nor had the chance to book a flat in the past five years.
a. This is so that we can provide more targeted support for families who want to secure their first home quickly and settle down.
b. That said, HDB may exercise flexibility on a case-by-case basis, if there are extenuating circumstances. For example, I have met adult children who had added themselves as co-owners to their parents’ flat so that they could help their parents cope with the mortgage and keep their homes. They tend to come from lower-income families. When they apply for a new flat and set up their own families, HDB may consider allowing them to qualify for this priority category.
24. In total, about 10% of all first-timer families will be considered First-Timer Parents and Married Couples for this subcategory.
25. Some Members – Mr Zhulkarnain, Mr Seah Kian Peng, Ms Foo Mee Har, and others – have asked how we will improve their chances of securing a flat. We will do so in three ways:
a. First, as DPM Lawrence Wong had announced during his Budget speech, First-Timer Parents and Married Couples will get one additional ballot when they apply for a new HDB flat.
i. So three ballots in total, up from the two that first-timers currently get, when they apply for any flat type in any estate – Mature, Non-Mature or Prime Location Housing.
b. Second, we will adjust an existing scheme, the Parenthood Priority Scheme, so that all First-Timer Parents and Married Couples also qualify for the scheme.
i. The current Parenthood Priority Scheme supports first-timer married couples who have children or are expecting. Under this scheme, up to 30% of the BTO flat supply and 50% of the supply of Balance Flats (or SBF) will be set aside for eligible applicants.
ii. We will now expand it to cover First-Timer Parents and Married Couples. That means that young married couples who do not yet have children can also qualify.
iii. To reflect this expansion, we will rename the scheme as the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme.
iv. And with more families qualifying, we will further increase the flat supply that we set aside for them – up to 40% of the BTO flat supply and 60% of the SBF flat supply, in all launches in Mature estates, Non-Mature estates and Prime Location Public Housing.
c. Third, for BTO launches in Non-Mature estates, we will give First-Timer Parents and Married Couples first priority under the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme, if they apply for a 4-room or smaller flat.
i. This means that they will be shortlisted ahead of all other applicants who are eligible for the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme, and stand a higher chance of being invited to select a flat.
26. So for a young couple, 26 or 27 years old, who ROM’d recently, they will be considered a First-Timer in this enhanced subcategory when they apply for a flat later this year. Let’s say they are considering a 4-room BTO flat in Yishun or Tampines, to live near either set of parents.
a. Regardless which one they choose, they will get three ballot chances from the get-go. they will also qualify for the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme and the Married Child Priority Scheme, which sets aside flats for eligible applicants.
b. And if they choose Yishun, a Non-Mature estate, they will be among the first to be shortlisted, across all eligible applicants for the Family and Parenthood Priority Scheme. So their chances of being invited to select a flat will be substantially higher.
27. So far, we have observed that virtually all first-timer families were invited to select a flat within three tries, when they apply for a BTO flat in the Non-Mature estates.
a. With these new changes, First-Timer Parents and Married Couples should be able to select a flat within fewer attempts, especially if they apply for a 4-room or smaller BTO flat in the Non-Mature estates where demand tends to be more moderate.
28. Some have asked if fiancé-fiancée couples can receive some help too.
a. We understand that they also hope to settle down quickly, similar to young married couples and families with young children.
b. But with the tight supply now, even as we are ramping up new supply, let us first help those who are already married or have children, but have yet to secure their first home.
c. As first-timers, fiancé-fiancée couples will still continue to receive two ballots when they apply for a new HDB flat. They will also continue to benefit from the large majority of flats that are set aside for first-timers. When they get married or ROM, they will similarly receive extra support to help them secure a flat more quickly.
Rules for Non-Selection
29. Even as we give more help to First-Timer Parents and Married Couples, we also need to enhance the efficiency of our system, so that flats go to those who need them, as quickly as possible.
30. Currently, 40% of BTO flat applicants who are invited to select a flat decide not to take up the offer.
31. When I shared this during our Forward Singapore Housing Conversations, participants were surprised.
a. It seemed at odds with what they had heard about strong housing demand.
b. They thought that some applicants might be trying their luck, hoping for a good ballot number for an attractive location. My HDB colleagues also shared that some applicants may be rather selective, wanting only flats on high floors.
32. There is probably a range of reasons. For some, the remaining flats may be out of their budget. For others, they might be considering other housing options, or prefer flats with specific attributes for specific reasons. Understandably, some would rather give up the opportunity to select a flat now, and wait longer for a better flat.
33. But whatever the reason, such applicants do crowd out other homebuyers who may have more pressing needs.
34. This is why we encourage applicants to apply for flats only if they really intend to purchase one because there are other home buyers who want to buy those flats. To reinforce this, our current practice is to issue what we term a “non-selection count”, when applicants are invited to book a flat but don’t take up the offer.
a. After receiving two non-selection counts, first-timers will be considered second-timers for one year when they ballot for a flat. They can still apply for a new HDB flat, but the flat allocation quota for second-timers is lower. As for second-timers who chalk up two non-selection counts, they will not be allowed to participate in HDB sales exercises for a year.
35. I’ve heard various suggestions during our Forward Singapore Housing Conversations to bring down the non-selection rate further –
a. Some suggested removing privileges for two years; some suggested raising the BTO application fee from $10 to $1,000 or more, or imposing a financial penalty if applicants don’t select a flat and do not have a good reason.
36. After careful consideration, we have decided for now to tighten the rules for non-selection.
a. We will consider first-timers as second-timers for a year when they ballot for a flat, after they receive one non-selection count, down from the two counts today.
b. Similarly, second-timers will not be allowed to participate in HDB sales exercises for one year, after they receive one non-selection count.
c. So this is more stringent than what we have in place today.
37. But at the same time, we understand that some applicants may have genuine reasons for not selecting a flat.
a. We want to strike a right balance, because buying a flat is a large financial decision, so we want to be fair to applicants who have very limited options when they are invited to select their flat. Therefore, HDB will not issue a non-selection count if BTO flat applicants have ten or fewer flats to choose from. For SBF exercises, where the flat supply is much smaller to begin with, we will use a lower threshold of five flats.
b. Some applicants may also turn down the offer to select a flat because their circumstances have changed unexpectedly since they applied for the flat. Where there are extenuating circumstances, HDB may exercise flexibility to waive the non-selection count, not issue it in the first place.
38. The moves that I have just announced will take effect from this year’s August BTO exercise.
a. We are announcing them early to give everyone some time to understand how these changes may affect them. And HDB will also need some time to stress-test and implement the system changes needed for all these moves.
Increased CPF Housing Grant
39. Let me now move on to our support for first-timers in the resale market.
40. As DPM Wong had announced recently during his Budget Speech, we have increased the CPF Housing Grant for first-timer families, to enhance housing affordability in the resale market.
a. Some first-timers prefer resale flats because they want to live near their parents or start raising their families sooner.
b. So we have increased the CPF Housing Grant by $30,000 for those who purchase a 4-room or smaller resale flat, and by $10,000 for those who purchase a 5-room or larger resale flat.
c. Altogether, eligible first-timer families can now receive up to $190,000 when they buy a resale flat.
d. To make it easier for buyers who had not completed their resale transaction before this announcement was made, we have extended the enhanced grants to them, so that they would not have to cancel their application and re-apply to qualify for the increased grants. This is unlike grants that are applicable to new BTO flats, which are tied to the prevailing policy at the point of BTO sales launch.
41. This grant increase was helpful to Mr Zulkhairi, a warehouse logistics trainer, and his family of three. They recently bought a 3-room resale flat, and will receive a total of $130,000 in housing grants. Mr Zulkhairi shared with us that this will help to lower the monthly mortgage repayments for him and his family.
42. Some Members – such as Mr Xie Yao Quan, Mr Jamus Lim, Ms Hazel Poa, Ms Mariam Jaafar and others – voiced concerns that this grant increase may cause resale prices to rise even further. As DPM Wong had explained during Budget debate, this was a move that we considered very carefully.
a. We are aware that whenever we increase grants, especially in a buoyant resale environment, there is always this risk.
b. We decided to move on this, given the current context.
i. First, as I mentioned earlier, we have significantly ramped up the supply of new BTO flats to meet strong housing demand.
ii. Second, to manage demand and encourage financial prudence, we had introduced two rounds of property cooling measures, which are working their way through the market.
iii. Third, the outlook for the broader economic environment remains extremely uncertain. The global economy may experience a shallow downturn this year, some analysts say. Mortgage interest rates have increased, and could rise further in the coming months from already elevated levels. And some households will be stretched.
c. With these in mind, we made a considered decision –
i. To increase the CPF Housing Grant and give targeted support to eligible first-timers, who made up about one-third of all resale flat buyers in the past two years. It does not apply universally to the entire resale market, but only a very specific group.
ii. And in this economic climate, buyers are also increasingly price sensitive, so sellers who raise their asking prices run the risk of pricing themselves out of the market.
43. We hope these moves give first-timers greater assurance about buying their first homes, and you can count on our support to set up and raise strong families.
Singles
44. Next, let me share what we are doing to help singles. Many Members, both present and past, spoke about this – like Ms Cheryl Chan, Ms Carrie Tan, Mr Louis Chua, Mr Xie Yao Quan, Ms He Ting Ru, Ms Joan Pereira, Ms Rachel Ong and many others.
45. While we support families stronger, we recognise that society continues to change. More Singaporeans want to live apart from their parents before settling down. There are also singles who help to take care of their ageing parents, but hope to have a place of their own. Others are caregivers of older parents and want to have their own space.
46. Their housing aspirations and needs are important too.
47. And we have been making changes to better support them over the years.
a. We first introduced the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme in 1991, when singles could purchase HDB resale flats.
b. From 2013, singles could also apply for a new 2-room Flexi flat.
c. Then in 2018, we increased the Proximity Housing Grant for singles who wanted to buy a resale flat to live with their parents. We also extended it to singles who wanted to buy a resale flat of their own, but remain near their parents, instead of living with their parents, often for caregiving reasons.
d. In August last year, we increased the allocation quota for singles buying 2-room Flexi flats from 50% to 65%, to improve their chances of securing a flat.
48. Eligible first-timer singles can also enjoy the recently increased CPF Housing Grant.
a. We have increased it from $25,000 to $40,000 for singles buying 2- to 4-room resale flats, and from $20,000 to $25,000 for 5-room resale flats.
b. We are glad to know that this provides more help to singles like Ms Cheryll Yeo to purchase homes of their own. Ms Yeo recently bought a 3-room resale flat in Serangoon, and will receive the increased CPF Housing Grant of $40,000. Her new home is near her parents’ place in Hougang, so she will receive the $10,000 Proximity Housing Grant too.
49. Now, during our Forward Singapore Housing Conversations, many singles – young and older – shared their challenges, perspectives and suggestions with us.
50. We are closely studying what they’ve told us, to see how else we can support their housing aspirations, including through co-living models or other types of housing arrangements as Ms Carrie Tan and Mr Xie Yao Quan had suggested.
Seniors
51. Let me now speak about our housing support for seniors, whom several Members have touched on.
52. Many of our seniors are homeowners. Over the years, we have introduced various upgrading programmes to help them age in place.
53. To go a step further, MND, MOH and HDB have jointly developed a new housing type – the Community Care Apartment, or CCA.
a. This is a fairly new housing-plus-care option for seniors.
b. We have launched two pilots, at Bukit Batok and at Queenstown, which were well-subscribed.
c. We also received valuable feedback from seniors, who were keen to apply, and who wanted us to build more.
54. So I am glad to announce that we will launch a third Community Care Apartment project in Bedok later this year, for our seniors.
55. Given the positive response so far, we are developing a pipeline of Community Care Apartments in different locations across Singapore.
a. We are working out the details and will share more later this year.
b. We will also continue to refine the Community Care Apartment model as we gain experience, especially after our first residents move in next year.
56. My colleague MOS Faishal Ibrahim will elaborate more on our efforts to help seniors age in place.
Lower-Income Households
57. Finally, let me touch on how we will better assist lower-income families with housing options.
58. About 85% of our low-income households in Singapore own their homes.
a. We achieve this high rate of ownership by pricing our flats so that lower-income households can afford them, too.
b. We also adopt a progressive approach, with more housing grants to support those with lower incomes.
59. For example, in the ongoing BTO exercise, the typical selling price for a 3-room flat in Jurong West Crystal is $220,000.
a. A household with a monthly income of $2,500 can receive $70,000 in housing grants, which will further reduce the price of the flat to $150,000.
b. This household will then need to use about 19% of their monthly income to pay for their mortgage instalments, which means that they can service their mortgage fully using their monthly CPF contributions, with zero cash outlay.
60. For those who are not yet ready for home ownership, we provide highly subsidised rental flats as a social safety net.
a. We recognise that some of these households may face other complex, interlocking challenges.
b. So we pair rental housing with social support, to make sure that tenants receive the support that they need, to achieve stability, self-reliance, and social mobility.
c. Many Members have asked about our efforts to support and uplift our rental tenants, and MOS Faishal will share more later.
Refining our Public Housing System
61. As I’ve said before, our public housing system is not perfect. We must learn from our experiences, continually improve and enhance our system for Singaporeans, and I thank Members for their thoughtful suggestions.
62. For example, we used to have the Registration for Flats System, or RFS.
a. This was basically a queue system – HDB built flats based on the number of applicants in the queue, and flats were allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
b. At the height of the property boom in the mid-90s, there were as many as 150,000 flat buyers in the queue, and the wait for a flat could be as long as seven years.
c. But when the Asian Financial Crisis hit in 1997, housing demand plummeted. The queue disappeared, leaving HDB with 31,000 unsold flats, which took many years to sell. It had a very serious impact on the value of existing homes in the resale market, affecting existing homeowners.
d. The challenges with the RFS were plain to see, then. We acknowledged then that it could not cope with sharp and sudden shifts in demand. So in 2002, we decided to replace it with the BTO model. But we did not stop there.
63. Over the years, we continued to refine our system. Today, we have a more comprehensive model, which is still developing, comprising BTO flats, Shorter Waiting Time flats, Sale of Balance flats, and flats that are offered under open booking. This combination allows us to more dynamically adjust our building plans in response to demand.
a. If demand surges, including suddenly like now during a crisis, we ramp up our main BTO pipeline, and tap on our Shorter Waiting Time flat pipeline to meet immediate needs. With a greater number of Shorter Waiting Time flats in future, this could be a more effective path.
b. If demand falls, we can scale back the BTO pipeline responsively, and allow homebuyers to book unselected flats from earlier launches through SBF or through open booking exercises, to minimise the potential for oversupply.
c. We have also finetuned our current system with priority schemes and ballot chances, so that we can provide additional support to specific groups of buyers, like First-Timer Parents and Married Couples we talked about earlier. In comparison, the allocation of flats under the RFS was much more basic.
d. The current system may not always work perfectly, and we will continue to adjust and calibrate along the way. But it does seem to strike a reasonable balance across multiple objectives – fairness and efficiency in allocating flats, fiscal prudence, and responsiveness to demand. Compared to its predecessors, the pure BTO model and the RFS model, I think it is a clear improvement.
64. Now, on the affordability of flats and fiscal sustainability. Let me assure Members once again that we aim to strike a good balance between the two.
a. We set prices for BTO flats with affordability in mind. When incomes and prices go up together, flats will remain affordable, and we may not need to increase market discounts or subsidies so much.
b. We also keep our market discounts and subsidies targeted – for first-timers and households with lower incomes. And we are open to new approaches, like the Prime Location Public Housing Model, which prevents flat buyers from benefiting from higher market discounts which later translate into excessive windfall gains.
c. The PSP and the WP have offered suggestions on how flats can be made even cheaper than today. We thank them for their ideas. We have debated them extensively in the very recent Housing Motion, and we have carefully explained the difficulties that we see with these ideas, so I won’t delve into them today.
65. Mr Henry Kwek, Mr Louis Chua, Ms Hazel Poa and Ms Foo Mee Har also raised some suggestions about housing loans.
a. We use the CPF OA interest rate as a peg, to give borrowers greater stability and certainty, since most service their mortgage repayments using their CPF OA savings.
b. Overall, in 2022, more than 8 in 10 BTO and resale flat buyers could service their HDB loan using their CPF contributions, with little to no cash outlay.
c. Nonetheless, for homeowners who face difficulties keeping up with their mortgage instalments, HDB has various financial assistance measures in place to help them. HDB also provides one-to-one financial counselling to homeowners who are in arrears, and will offer appropriate measures depending on their situation to help them. The proportion of households in arrears amongst those servicing HDB loans has also remained fairly stable over the past decade.
d. On raising the loan-to-value limit for first-timers, as Ms Foo Mee Har had suggested, we appreciate her intent to make flats more affordable for them.
i. We recently lowered the limit for HDB housing loans in September last year, to encourage flat buyers, including first-timers, to exercise more financial prudence, especially in a rising interest rate environment, and an environment of greater economic uncertainty.
ii. We do not expect this to adversely affect a significant proportion of first-time homebuyers. The significant grants we provide, especially for lower-income first-timers, allow them to offset the cash component of their flats. Nevertheless, I assure Ms Foo that we will keep watch, and take this into consideration as we review our policies.
Mandarin
66. Chairman, allow me to speak in Mandarin, please.
67. 无论您处于人生的哪一个阶段，政府都致力为国人提供优质的住房选择。
68. 我们了解许多国人对目前的住房情况感到焦虑。您可能担心孩子是否能负担得起房屋。
69. 虽然冠状病毒严重打乱了政府的组屋建造计划，但是我们已经开始重回正轨了。
70. 除了增加组屋的供应量，我们也将加大力度帮助首次购屋者购买组屋。
71. 如果您的孩子是首次购屋者、
a. 有小孩或是40岁以下的夫妇，
b. 并且从来没有拥有任何住宅或还没有机会申请购买组屋，
c. 我们会帮助他们尽早购得组屋。
72. 第一，首次购屋的父母和已婚夫妇可以在申请任何组屋区的预购组屋时，获得额外的抽签机会。
73. 第二，我们之前有一项叫着育儿优先配屋计划，把高达30%的三房式或更大型的预购组屋单位保留给有孩子的已婚夫妇。
a. 我们将扩大这项计划，改名为家庭与育儿优先配屋计划。
b. 除了帮助首次购屋的有孩家庭，新的计划也包括首次购屋的已婚夫妇。而且，预留给这群首次购屋者的预购组屋单位，也会增加到40%。
c. 第三，在这个计划下，首次购屋的父母和已婚夫妇也会享有优先权，所以受邀选购组屋的机率也比较高。
74. 我们最近也调高了公积金购屋津贴，最高可达8万元，来帮助想要购买转售组屋的首次购屋者。
75. 政府会像帮助上一代的新加坡人一样，帮助您的孩子购买他们的第一间房屋，支持他们成家，养儿育女。
76. 我们也会照顾乐龄人士的住房需求。
a. 我们将在勿洛推出第三个社区关爱组屋。这是为乐龄人士而设的 “辅助生活”住房概念。这项计划提供亲乐龄的住房设备、看护服务和社交活动，让您能安享黄金岁月。
Exciting Moves Ahead
77. Looking ahead, we are making ambitious, exciting moves to create space for our future needs, including in housing.
a. We have already opened up new towns and housing areas – in Tengah, Miltonia and Ulu Pandan East – to offer some 36,000 HDB flats.
b. Singaporeans can look forward to upcoming projects at Mt Pleasant, Keppel Club and Bayshore, which will yield about 17,000 HDB flats.
c. And further down the road, in the 2030s and 40s, we will open up the Greater Southern Waterfront for urban living, and redevelop the Paya Lebar Airbase area to offer some 150,000 public and private homes. These plans were set in motion over a decade ago, when we started planning for the relocation of the Paya Lebar Airbase, Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang ports.
78. We are also working on our plans for the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme, or VERS, so that we can redevelop our towns in a sustainable manner and ensure equitable housing across generations. We will share more when ready.
79. As has been the hallmark of this Government, we will always look ahead to plan sustainably.
a. We will continue to provide good homes for our people;
b. And we will work closely with Singaporeans to ensure that the future of Singapore remains bright, inclusive and liveable.