Divorcees who get full custody of all children will no longer be subject to a five-year debarment period when buying a second subsidised flat from HDB. Neither would they have to get prior consent from their ex-spouse to give up their right to a subsidised flat, announced National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan in Parliament on Monday. However, the ex-spouse with no children will still be subjected...
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The government is fully committed to providing affordable public housing options for Singaporeans. And extra grants are offered to the lower-income group to help them rent, buy their own home or monetise their flat in future. Minister of State for National Development, Tan Chuan Jin said the ministry tracks "very closely" the incomes of Singaporeans, to make sure that flats are priced and subsidised so...
As for Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam's comment that Singaporeans earning S$1,000 could also own a home, Minister of State Josephine Teo said she was not surprised at the mixed reactions from netizens. "They don't necessarily know that there are grants available from the HDB that will make the actual size of the loan for purchasing these houses not very big. "With the grants, the loan...
Second timers applying for a Build-To-Order (BTO) flat, retirees looking to age-in-place, and multi-generation families have received a housing boost from the Ministry of National Development. National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan announced tweaks to balloting rules for second-timers during the Committee of Supply debate for his ministry in Parliament on Friday. He said these are aimed at building...
Minister for the Ministry of National Development (MND) Khaw Boon Wan is paying special attention to families facing financial difficulties because of misfortune. This includes the sudden death of a breadwinner or a major illness of a family member. He said in Parliament on Friday: "For victims of misfortune, I have impressed on my MND colleagues that our default position is to try to say "yes", to help...
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan has clarified comments made by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, that a household with a S$1,000 income can afford an HDB flat. Mr Khaw said the comment had caused a stir, as it sounded so incredible. But he said Mr Tharman was referring to a two-room Built-To-Order (BTO) flat. That's because such a flat would cost a first-time applicant - who...
The phrase "asset rich, cash poor" is a common refrain in Singapore. But property watchers said schemes aimed at helping elderly Singaporeans unlock the value of their homes, are slow to find favour. That's because the schemes are either too restrictive, or not well understood. The Lease Buyback Scheme was introduced in March 2009 to help low-income elderly living in 3-room and smaller flats unlock the...
When property agency bosses at a seminar early this month predicted a 3 to 5 per cent fall in the prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats for this year, possibly declining up to 10 per cent should economic conditions worsen, it prompted a few prospective buyers to ask me whether this was news too good to be true. The forecast was reinforced by data released a week later by three major...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has launched the tender for four residential sites, which could yield approximately 2,070 residential units. Three of the four land parcels were released under the confirmed list, while the last plot was made available under the reserve list of the 1H2012 Government Land Sales (GLS) Programme. The three sites — Punggol Central/Edgefield Plains (pictured),...
Singapore has currently about 1,000 interim rental housing units. Replying to a question in Parliament, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, Dr Maliki Osman said the Interim Rental Housing (IRH) came about because there were a number of old HDB blocks which were vacated, pending demolition. To put them to some interim use, HDB decided to rent them out to families in financial hardship...