Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on the percentage of young couples who have successfully applied for a HDB flat in the past five years

Oct 3, 2022

Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim: To ask the Minister of National Development for each of the past five years, what is the percentage of young couples who have successfully applied for a HDB flat through (i) Sale of Balance Flats exercises (ii) Open Booking of Flats exercises and (iii) temporary housing scheme under the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme.

Answer:

     The percentages of young couples who successfully applied for an HDB flat through the Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises, open booking of flats and Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) in each of the past five years between 2017 and 2021 are shown in Table 1. 

Table 1: Percentage of Young Couples* Successful^ in SBF, Open Booking and PPHS Applications

Note:   *  Refers to first-timer couples with at least one party aged 30 or below at the point of flat application and based on unique applications received under each mode of sale.
            ^  An application is successful if the applicants had a chance to book a flat in an application made within the year.
            # The first open booking took place in June 2019.

2    Unlike Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, SBF flats and open booking flats are not the mainstay of HDB’s flat supply. The number of flats offered for sale depends mainly on the unsold flats from previous BTO exercises. Given the limited supply, we encourage young couples to apply for BTO flats in the non-mature estates (NMEs) instead. On average over the past few years, almost 90% of first-timer families applying in NMEs managed to secure their BTO flats within two attempts. Those who have been unsuccessful in two or more attempts for a BTO flat in the NMEs are given an additional ballot chance for each subsequent NME BTO application. As a result, virtually all first-timer families who apply for NME BTO flats are successful within their first three tries.

3    First-timer families may also consider buying a resale flat on the open market and can receive up to $160,000 in housing grants.

4  The Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) provides an additional temporary housing option for households waiting for the completion of their new flats.

5    In August 2021, we finetuned the PPHS criteria to accord priority to applicants with more urgent need for temporary housing. We are also on track to increase the PPHS supply from 800 in 2021 to 1,800 in 2023.  As a result, the share of young couples who had a chance to select a PPHS flat has risen in 2022 (up to September) to about 20%.