With the launch of the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) resale portal in January, about 2,000 flat owners have received approval to sell their housing units, reported Channel News Asia.
Streamlining the buying and selling of public housing units, the new portal aims to reduce the transaction time by half, from 16 weeks to just eight weeks.
Since its launch, all flat buyers and sellers were required to submit their resale applications via the portal using their SingPass. Once their intent to purchase or sell a flat is registered, their personal details will be automatically filled up using the government’s MyInfo service.
Aside from filtering out who is eligible to buy or sell, the portal also allows buyers to see if they are eligible for a housing loan as well as an HDB concessionary housing loan. Those who intend to take up an HDB housing loan can apply for an HDB Loan Eligibility Letter via the portal.
The portal can also be used by buyers to ask HDB to confirm the flat’s value in order to determine their Central Provident Fund (CPF) usage and housing loan. A processing fee of S$120 is payable to HDB.
Flat sellers and buyers will complete their resale applications through the portal upon the exercise of the Option to Purchase. HDB will then verify the information provided in the resale application and supporting documents it had received while notifying the buyers and sellers via email or SMS. The application’s status will also be updated via the portal.
Once it had approved the application, HDB will set up an appointment for both parties to complete the transaction as well as to sign relevant documents which require “wet ink” signatures.
“I think it’s quite easy to understand … (if) you have all the documents ready, then it will facilitate the whole process,” said Chea Onn Long, who along with his wife Mandy Chan, had benefited from the streamlined process.
Christopher Chitty, Senior Content Producer at PropertyGuru, edited this story
