Proportion of HDB Resale and BTO Flat Transactions by Singaporeans and PRs from 2010
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the proportion of HDB BTO and resale flat transactions among Singapore Citizens (SCs) and Permanent Residents (SPRs) between 2010 and 2022, raised by Mr Leong Mun Wai. Minister for National Development Desmond Lee noted that BTO flats require at least one SC applicant, with all-SC households comprising 84% to 90% of bookings from 2011 to 2021. For resale flats, all-SC households accounted for 65% to 83% of transactions, while the share of all-SPR households dropped from 27% in 2011 to 7% in 2021. Minister for National Development Desmond Lee attributed this decline to the 2013 policy requiring SPR households to wait three years before becoming eligible to purchase resale flats. These statistics reflect housing policies where mixed SC-SPR households accounted for the remaining 10% to 16% of BTO bookings and 17% to 35% of resale transactions.
Transcript
20 Mr Leong Mun Wai asked the Minister for National Development in each year from 2010 to 2022, what is the proportion of HDB resale and BTO flat transactions where (i) all applicants are Singapore Citizens (ii) at least one applicant is a Permanent Resident and (iii) all applicants are 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 SCs or Singapore Permanent Residents (SPRs). This extends to first-timer households applying for a Central Provident Fund (CPF) Housing Grant when purchasing a resale flat. SPR households are allowed to purchase resale flats without housing grants, but they must have been SPRs for at least three years.
In each of the last ten years, between 2011 and 2021:
(a) Between 84% and 90% of all BTO flats booked were by households where all applicants were SCs. The remainder of between 10% and 16% of the BTO flats were booked by households with SCs and SPRs.
(b) Between 65% and 83% of the resale flats bought were by households where all applicants were SCs, and the percentage generally increased across the years. The remainder of between 17% and 35% of the resale flats bought were by households where at least one applicant was an SPR. The share of resale flats bought by SPR households fell from about 27% in 2011 to 7% in 2021. This could be attributed to the implementation of the condition in 2013 that SPR households are required to wait three years from the date of obtaining SPR status before they can purchase a resale flat.