Appeals Made to HDB for Flexibility in Application of Ethnic Integration Policy

38 Mr Pritam Singh asked the Minister for National Development (a) how many appeals have been made over the past three years for HDB to exercise flexibility in resale transactions on the ethnic limits under the Ethnic Integration Policy and on what grounds; (b) of these, how many have been rejected; and (c) what are the grounds for such rejections.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Between 2013 and 2015, HDB received about 1,200 appeals for a waiver of the Ethnic Integration Policy. Four in five appeals were not successful. For most of these unsuccessful cases, the applicants did not cite any reasons for their appeals, hence, there was no basis to consider their requests. Several also cited reasons like financial difficulty or divorce. While we empathise with these cases, they do not provide sufficient grounds to justify the waiver of the ethnic limits, which are needed to ensure a good mix of residents in our neighbourhoods and public housing estates. Furthermore, HDB's observation is that many flat sellers are still able to secure buyers from eligible ethnic groups, given the large volume of resale transactions annually.