Disposal of Private Property within Six Months of Effective Date of Purchase of Non-subsidised or Resale Flat

Mr Muhamad Faisal Bin Abdul Manap asked the Minister for National Development with regard to the requirement to dispose of private property within six months of the effective date of purchasing a non-subsidised or resale flat (a) how many cases of private residential property in Singapore and overseas have been so disposed of since the inception of this policy; (b) how many appeals asking for retention of such property have the Ministry received; and (c) how many of such appeals are approved and what is the basis for the approval.

Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats are meant for owner-occupation. To reinforce this principle, buyers of HDB resale flats are not allowed to retain ownership of local or overseas private properties.

Since the policy was introduced in August 2010, slightly over 5,000 households have disposed of their private properties when they purchased flats from the resale market. In the last three years, about 1,200 households appealed to retain their private property. Of these, HDB acceded to about 300 appeals after considering the specific facts of each case, taking into account factors, such as the owner's share in the private property and the reasons why the private property cannot be recovered for his or her own use.