To help young couples get their new homes sooner, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will introduce a new sales mode for balance flats and will start the construction of select build-to-order (BTO) projects ahead of their launch.
The Housing Board plans to launch for sale the first batch of flats with shorter waiting time in 2H 2018 but construction is expected to start in Q4 2017.
These units are targeted for completion between Q4 2020 and Q1 2021. This means buyers would only have to wait for around 2.5 years starting from the time they apply to purchase the flats, instead of about three to four years for standard BTO projects.
About 1,000 units will be offered with shorter waiting time across three projects in the non-mature estates of Yishun, Sengkang and Sembawang.
When applying for these flats, first-timer families will get higher priority. Compared to current quota of 85 percent in non-mature estates, at least 95 percent of these flats with four rooms or more will be allocated to this group.
Aside from the shorter waiting time, these flats will come with internal doors, floor finishes and sanitary fittings. This will enable families to move in sooner and reduce the required renovation works. These units will also have an open kitchen with no partition wall.
While buyers of these flats cannot make a selection under the Optional Component Scheme (OCS), the Housing Board will continue to offer elderly fittings and furnishings for elderly buyers of two-room Flexi flats with short lease.
For those that want to choose their desired fittings and finishes via this scheme, they are advised to apply for BTO projects with typical waiting time.
Starting next month, the Housing Board will also introduce a new sales mode for remaining unsold unit called the Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF).
This will help those with urgent housing needs and those less particular about the attributes and location of their units, as this sales exercise will offer unsold homes pooled together from previous Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises.
In total 1,394 units will be re-offered from the SBF exercise in November 2016. At least, 95 percent of these will be set aside for first-timer families, while up to five percent will be allocated to second-timers.
HDB intends to hold ROF exercises twice every year in February and August in conjunction with the BTO exercises for those months. Given that two SBF exercises are held alongside the other two BTO exercises in May and November, home hunters will have four chances of applying for a balance flat per year.
This article was edited by Denise Djong.
