HDB Flats Owned by Singapore Citizens, Singapore Citizens and Non-resident Persons, and Permanent Residents

15 Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for National Development for each year from 2010 to 2022, how many HDB flats are owned by (i) Singapore Citizens, (ii) Singapore Citizens and non-resident persons and (iii) Singapore Permanent Residents, respectively.

Mr Desmond Lee: Public housing in Singapore, primarily, caters to the housing needs of Singaporeans. Subsidised Build-To-Order (BTO) flats can only be purchased by households with at least one Singapore Citizen (SC). This means that the main applicant must be an SC and, his/her co-applicants, if any, must be an SC or Singapore Permanent Residents (SPRs). In addition, SPR households are only allowed to own a resale flat, but they are not eligible for housing grants and must have been SPRs for at least three years. Non-resident persons are not allowed to own an HDB flat.

In each of the years from 2011 to 2021, (a) between 780,000 and 970,000 units (or between 93% and 95% of the HDB flats) are owned by households where all owners are SCs; and (b) the number of flats owned by SPR households fell from about 47,000 units (or 6%) in 2010 to 44,000 units (or 4%) in 2021. This could be attributed to the implementation of revised policy in 2013 that SPR households are required to wait three years from the date of obtaining SPR status before they can own an HDB flat.