The Housing Board incurs a deficit annually, mainly from its homeownership programmes.
The Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) net deficit jumped 44.4 percent to about $1.72 billion in fiscal year 2016/2017 compared to $1.19 billion a year ago, partly due to more new flats being sold and a higher number of homes that were upgraded, reported the Straits Times.
In particular, the shortfall from its homeownership programme increased to $1.38 billion versus $861 million previously, based on the agency’s annual report published on Monday (22 Oct).
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Overall, the Housing Board completed the sales for over 26,800 units, which exceeded sales in the preceding fiscal year by about 5,400.
HDB also completed the construction of 25,530 new flats, comprising 21,889 Build-To-Order flats, 1,106 units under the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) and 2,535 rental units.
At the same time, the deficit for upgrading HDB flats rose to $639 million, up from $482 million in FY 2015/2016. This is attributed to more residential units benefiting from the Home Improvement Programme, Lift Upgrading Programme and Neighbourhood Renewal Programme.
The agency incurs a deficit annually, mainly from its homeownership programmes, which includes the construction and sale of new HDB flats. But this shortfall is fully covered by a grant from the Ministry of Finance.
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Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
