Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on whether HDB can accelerate the pace of response to rental flat requests

May 10, 2021

Mr Kwek Hian Chuan Henry: To ask the Minister for National Development whether HDB can accelerate the pace of response to rental flat requests so as to support Singaporean families facing urgent financial and housing distress.  

Answer:

HDB aims to evaluate and respond to requests for a rental flat within three weeks of receiving the required information from applicants. This provides applicants with certainty on whether they are eligible for a rental flat. 

For complex cases, HDB may need more time to understand the applicant’s circumstances and housing options, including working with social service agencies to address the underlying causes of the applicant’s housing situation. In some cases, applicants may need some time to submit additional documents to support their requests. Should more time be needed for evaluation, HDB will provide interim updates to assure applicants that their requests are being looked into. 

The waiting time for successful applicants to be allocated a rental flat has increased from about two months prior to the COVID-19 pandemic to about five months currently. Due to the severe labour crunch that the construction industry is facing, a longer time is required to spruce up rental flats that have been returned to HDB before they are let out to new tenants. In addition, HDB had activated over 2,000 rental units as emergency housing in support of the fight against COVID-19. While these units have since been returned to the public rental pool, they also require sprucing works before they can be let out.  To reduce the waiting time for rental flats, HDB is working on measures to speed up the sprucing works and facilitate key collections as quickly as possible. 

For applicants with urgent housing needs such as medical grounds or other extenuating circumstances, HDB will expedite their key collection. In 2020, about a third of our successful rental applicants were granted priority allocation.

Anyone facing sudden housing distress and who is in need of immediate shelter should approach a Social Service Office, a Family Service Centre, or call the ComCare hotline to seek help from a crisis shelter.