Shorter waiting time to book HDB flats

Romesh Navaratnarajah8 Feb 2019

Flat buyers can now book unsold units from the Re-Offer of Balance Flats pool at any time of the year. This will shorten the amount of waiting time to book a flat to just a day. 

Home buyers can look forward to shorter waiting times to book HDB flats as the government has unveiled a new scheme to secure a flat.

It allows flat buyers to book unsold units from the Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) pool at any time of the year.

“This open booking will start around the middle of the year, with the first batch of about 120 flats,” wrote National Development Minister Lawrence Wong in a blog post on Thursday (7 Feb).

“In other words, flat buyers can apply online anytime on a first-come, first-served basis, and book a flat by the next working day. This will effectively reduce their waiting time to book a flat to just one day.”

He noted that some 20,000 Singaporean households purchase a flat from HDB every year, mostly via the Build-To-Order (BTO) or the Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises.

In 2017, the government introduced the ROF exercise, where all unsold HDB units are offered in a common pool.

Applicants under the ROF exercise are not required to indicate the flat type and location they prefer and can book any available units based on their eligibility. This benefits buyers with urgent housing needs or who are less particular about the location and other flat attributes.

With this, ROF sales exercises – which are offered twice a year – have become popular with buyers.

In fact, around 2,500 households have booked a flat since the scheme was first launched, of which nearly two-thirds have collected the keys to their units.

“With the increased range of options available, I hope that it will be easier and more convenient for potential home buyers to find a flat that meets their different needs, preferences, and budget,” said Wong.

Find HDB flats for sale or read our HDB guides. Can you afford an HDB flat? Check your affordability now. 

 

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg

POST COMMENT

You may also like these articles

HDB slightly reduces BTO supply for 2019

The BTO flat supply next year includes some 2,000 units in the new Tengah town. Source: HDBThe Housing and Development Board (HDB) announced last Friday (7 Dec) that it intends to launch around 15,000

Continue Reading10 Dec 2018

Record of agents’ past HDB resale transactions now available online

The database shows the track record of agents and how active they are in transacting HDB flats.Those keen to buy or sell HDB flats can now check the track record of their property agent online, after

Continue Reading7 Jan 2019

65% of 490,440 flat owners took out HDB loans

The average monthly instalment for flat owners servicing HDB loans ranges from $567 to $1,253 depending on the flat type. The Ministry of National Development revealed that 490,440 HDB flat owners we

Continue Reading15 Jan 2019