Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on waiting times for HDB BTO flats and percentage of applicants not taking up offered flats in the past 20 years

Oct 3, 2022

Ms Janet Ang: To ask the Minister for National Development

(a) in the past 20 years, what is the (i) average and (ii) longest wait times for HDB BTO flats from the point of submitted application to when the first flat was offered and accepted; and
(b) what percentage of these applicants were offered flats but did not eventually take up the offers.

Answer:

         As flat applicants might not apply in consecutive Build-To-Order (BTO) exercises, it may not be meaningful to track the average and longest wait time between applicants’ first flat application and when they book a flat. Furthermore, not all applicants who have the opportunity to book a flat proceed to do so. From past sale launches, about four in ten applicants did not book a flat when invited to do so.

2        As such, we monitor the average number of attempts for applicants to secure a BTO flat, which was less than two times over the last five years. 

3        We are committed to help Singaporeans own their first home. From the recent Aug 2022 BTO exercise, HDB has increased the first-timer BTO allocation quotas for flats in Non-Mature Estates (NMEs) to give first-timer applicants greater certainty in securing an NME flat. At least 85% of the 3-room and 95% of 4-room and larger BTO flat supplies are now set aside for first-timer families, an increase from 70% and 85%, respectively. At least 95% of BTO flat supply in the Mature Estates (MEs) continue to be set aside for first-timer families. HDB has also been ramping up the supply of BTO flats, and will launch up to 23,000 flats per year in 2022 and 2023. This is a significant increase of 35 per cent from the 17,000 flats launched in 2021. We are also prepared to launch up to 100,000 flats in total from 2021 to 2025, if needed.

4        We will continue to closely monitor public housing demand and supply, so that we can meet the housing needs of Singaporeans, especially those buying their first home.