Debated in Parliament on 12 Feb 2015.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development (a) to date, what is the number of single applicants who have applied and are yet to secure their 2-room BTO flats; and (b) what is the estimated waiting time for these singles to secure their flats.
The Minister of State for National Development (Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman) (for the Minister for National Development): Madam, from July 2013, singles were allowed to buy 2-room Build-to-Order (BTO) flats. Since then, about 18,300 singles have applied and about 9,000 are able to select a flat. The remaining 9,300 did not have a chance to select a flat. Some may have gone on with other housing plans. Many will try again at upcoming BTO launches.
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HDB does not have the waiting time statistics, as it will vary according to factors, such as the popularity of the BTO projects and the applicants' preferences.
As a new scheme, some pent-up demand is expected. HDB has ramped up the supply from 2,600 units of 2-room BTO flats in 2013 to about 5,000 units in 2014. Singles' application rates have accordingly fallen, from a high of 58 applicants to one flat in July 2013, to 13 applicants to one flat in November 2014. We will continue to help applicants to secure their flat more quickly.
Mdm Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for the comprehensive reply. For this year's 16,500 BTO flats, may I know what is the percentage that would be 2-room flats made available to singles?
Madam, we have announced that we will launch about 16,500 BTO flats, of which about 5,000 would be 2-room flats. Not all of these 2-room flats are for singles. As the Member mentioned earlier, the quota is such that we reserve about 30% of the 2-room flats for singles, because we also need to meet the needs and demands of our first-time families, as well as second-timers who require smaller flats. But our experience is such that where there are leftovers from the families and second-timers, these leftover 2-room flats will then be allocated to singles. If we talk about 5,000 out of 16,500 launches for this year, one-third will be 2-room flats that will be launched by HDB.
Mdm Speaker, with the demand from newly-weds easing now – because I do not see so many of them coming to my Meet-the-People Sessions (MPS) now – can the Ministry consider allocating a higher quota for singles?
We are monitoring the situation but, as mentioned earlier, our data show that for 2013 and 2014, although the quota for singles is 30%, the gross figure shows that about 77% of the 2-room flats were allocated to singles. Even if the quota today stays at 30%, the actual numbers that were taken up or allocated to singles are much higher. We will continue to monitor the situation. As Er Dr Lee Bee Wah said, if the demand from first-timers, as well as families, is coming down, we will consider the possibility of increasing the quota for singles. But we will continue to monitor the situation.
My next question is whether HDB will consider giving an extra chance for those repeated so-called unsuccessful applicants after each failure.
Madam, I think we have to be fair to all applicants. But as we treat the cases of families or first-time applicants, sometimes we also take a look at those who have applied many, many times and have had difficulties and we try to look at
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them on a case-by-case basis to try to assist them accordingly. We can also assist singles in that manner; looking at the circumstances of their situation and the number of times they have not been successful in applying for a flat.
By and large, as mentioned earlier, the proportion has come down and the number of singles who have been able to secure their 2-room flats is much better. As we go on in the future, we suspect that as we meet the pent-up demand, things will stabilise and they will be able to get their flats in due course.
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