Written answer by Ministry of National Development on applicants having shared care and control of children purchasing or renting HDB flats

May 7, 2024

Question No: 5775

Question by: Mr Louis Ng Kok Kwang

To ask the Minister for National Development in each year from 2021 to 2023: (a) how many applications with applicants having shared care and control of their children were received by HDB to purchase or rent a flat respectively; and (b) of these, what is the number of applications that were (i) rejected as applicants were unable to obtain the consent of their ex-spouse to list their children for the application and (ii) approved without requiring the consent of their ex-spouse.

Answer:

On the total number of applicants with shared care and control of their children, the Member may wish to refer to the written reply given by the Minister for National Development to a similar Parliamentary Question posed by the Member on 1 November 2021.

On applicants who were unable to obtain their ex-spouse’s consent, HDB received 18 appeals from such applicants to buy an HDB flat with their children from January 2021 to December 2023, of which 11 were approved (see Table 1). In the same period, HDB also approved eight cases from such applicants to rent an HDB flat with their children (see Table 2). HDB does not reject applications to rent a flat solely on the basis of an applicant’s inability to obtain their ex-spouse’s consent.

Table 1: Number of appeals from divorced parents with shared care and control of children to buy an HDB flat, without ex-spouse’s consent

Table 2: Number of approvals for divorced parents with shared care and control of children to rent a flat from HDB, without ex-spouse’s consent