Application Rate for 2-room Flexi Flats by Singles and General Public

11 Er Dr Lee Bee Wah asked the Minister for National Development (a) what is the current application rate for 2-room Flexi flats in general and by singles in particular; and (b) whether HDB will consider making 3-room BTO units available to singles who wish to accommodate their parents.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Lawrence Wong): Mr Speaker, the overall BTO application rate for 2-room Flexi flats was 1.6 times in the first half of 2019, while that for singles was three times in the same period.

On the second question that the Member raised, singles who wish to live with their parents can, indeed, form a family nucleus with their parents and jointly purchase a BTO flat of any type together.

As for the request for singles to buy a larger 3-room flat, that is something we will have to consider very carefully, bearing in mind the impact it will have on the longer term overall demand-supply balance of the public housing market. I would remind Members that we only opened up the BTO market for singles to purchase 2-room units not that long ago. I remember when I started in MND in 2015, application rates were in the double digits. Now, we have managed to bring it down but it is still slightly on the high side and I think we will need time to ensure that the situation is stabilised before we consider any further moves.

Er Dr Lee Bee Wah (Nee Soon): Sir, I would like to thank the Minister for the answer. But I think for singles, three times is still high. Consistently, I hear from my residents who are singles; they told me that they have tried applying several times but were still not successful. I would like to suggest: if, let us say, they have tried applying in non-mature estates for three times or more, can HDB look into their cases specifically and help them?

The next question is: recently, during the Meet-the-People Sessions, I have more and more cases of young couples applying for flats for more than three times and not being successful. Similarly, I would like to request HDB to look into those cases of young couples who applied in non-mature estates for new BTO flat; if they are not successful for more than three times, I hope that we can help them.

Mr Lawrence Wong: Mr Speaker, let me take the second question first. I think there was a similar question that Mr Gan had asked, in fact, that is related, which is for young couples buying their first BTO flat in non-mature estates – whether we will give an additional chance, which we do, and whether that gives them assurance that within three times, they will be able to purchase a flat in a non-mature estate. The answer to that is indeed, through that additional chance, we are able to assure first-timers buying a flat in a non-mature estate, virtually all of them are able to do so within three tries today. That commitment continues. We will continue to ensure that for first-timers buying a flat in a non-mature estate, within three tries, through the processes that we have, they should be able to get an HDB flat.

If the Member knows of any applicant or if Members know of any applicants who are unable to do so, please let us know because based on our data, based on our checks, virtually everyone can do so already today. Many times, they will tell you they cannot, but when you check through their applications, very often they have tried for a mature estate or they have tried for a balance flat. Those do not count. If you look at BTO applications in non-mature estates, within three tries, virtually all of them get it.

The first question that the Member raised: can this apply to singles too? This goes back to my earlier point that we have just opened up the market to singles. We are still dealing with a backlog. We have brought the application rate down to three, and I acknowledge it is still on the high side. So, we still fundamentally have to build more flats and stabilise the situation before we can consider any priority for that matter, for first-timer applicants who are singles.