Waiting Time from Application to Key Collection for HDB BTO Flats
Ministry of National DevelopmentSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the definition of publicized waiting times for HDB BTO flats and whether they incorporate the period spent on prior unsuccessful applications. Ms Hazel Poa requested the median and quartile durations from an applicant's first attempt to key collection, but Minister for National Development Desmond Lee clarified that publicized figures only measure the interval from flat selection to key collection. He explained that including unsuccessful attempts is impractical due to varied applicant behaviors and preferences, which lead to inconsistent application timelines between sales exercises. Consequently, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee stated that HDB does not track the specific historical data requested regarding the total duration starting from a first application.
Transcript
46 Ms Hazel Poa asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether the publicised waiting time for HDB BTO flats includes the length of time from the first flat application which may have been unsuccessful to the time of successful application; (b) if not, what is the median, lower and upper quartile length of time from the point of the first HDB BTO application to key collection, for those who collected their keys in the past 10 years.
Mr Desmond Lee: The waiting time published by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) at Build-To-Order (BTO) launches refers to the length of time that successful applicants per project have to wait between flat selection and key collection, which is largely dependent on construction duration. For the BTO projects launched in 2022, the median waiting time is between four and four-and-a-half years.
The published waiting time does not span the length of time from a first unsuccessful flat application through to an eventual successful application. This is because there are wide variety of factors which affect the interval between an unsuccessful first application and a subsequent successful application. For instance, some unsuccessful BTO flat applicants may apply immediately for subsequent consecutive BTO sales exercises whereas others may not, due to specific locational preferences or other reasons. Some flat applicants may also only apply for Sales of Balance Flats, which are offered every six months. Hence, the timelines of subsequent applications vary greatly among the applicants.
HDB does not track the other information requested by Ms Poa.