Written Answer by Ministry of National Development on whether there are plans to increase the supply and model of Singapore’s public rental housing and interim rental housing

May 11, 2021

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin: To ask the Minister for National Development whether there are plans to increase the supply and model of Singapore’s public rental housing and interim rental housing so as to decrease the waiting time between application and securing the keys for eligible applicants. 

Answer:

The average waiting time for 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 applicants. This has led to longer waiting times for available rental flats. 

In addition, HDB had activated over 2,000 rental flats 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. 

Notwithstanding the temporary shortage of ready rental flats that can be allocated to new applicants, the overall stock of rental flats is sufficient to meet demand.