Debated in Parliament on 6 Oct 2020.
Mr Chong Kee Hiong asked the Minister for National Development (a) in each of the last three years, how many appeals for waiver of the Ethnic Integration Policy are received from HDB flat owners; (b) how many appeals are received from each ethnic group; (c) how many of the appeals are successful; (d) how many owners are granted time extension to sell their flats; and (e) how many of the flats remain unsold at the end of the time extension.
In 2017, 2018, and 2019, there were a total of around 22,100, 23,100, and 23,700 HDB resale transactions registered, respectively. In each of the three respective years, HDB received about 530, 690, and 630 appeals from flat owners to waive the Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP). About 300 (16%) of these appeals were from Chinese flat owners, 460 (25%) were from Malay flat owners, and 1,080 (59%) were from Indian flat owners or flat owners from other ethnic groups. The percentage of appeals that were successful has increased from 8% in 2017, to 14% in 2018, and reached 18% in 2019.
As for time extensions granted to flat owners to sell their flats, from 2017 to 2019, HDB approved on average more than 900 such appeals per year. These time extensions were given for various reasons, not just the EIP. For example, flat owners may have requested a time extension because they faced medical difficulties, or unforeseen delays in renovations for their next flat. HDB is unable to provide a more detailed breakdown by the reasons given for the time extensions, as it does not track the appeals to this level of detail, and there could be multiple reasons given for any specific case.
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