HDB Boosts Priority Scheme For First-Timers

Source : The Straits Times, 15 Aug 2007

90% of flats offered in build-to-order, balloting exercises reserved for them

The Housing Board has tweaked its priority scheme to greatly increase the chances of first-time buyers and newly-weds getting sought-after new flats.

From now on, 90 per cent of all new flats offered in the HDB’s build-to-order (BTO) and balloting exercises will be reserved for such applicants.

In the HDB computer ballot, only 10 per cent of the homes on offer will go to second-time applicants.

Once this level has been reached, all other applicants from this segment will be withdrawn.

It effectively leaves the field clear for those who have never bought a new HDB flat.

For newly-weds who want a flat nearer a set of parents, their chances are further boosted.

Such couples already have a helping hand under the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS), which gives them double the chance during the balloting. This will improve since 90 per cent of flats are now set aside for first-timers.

Under the old system, there was no quota, so first-timers were in the mix along with everyone else.

If there are not enough second-timer applicants to take up the 10 per cent allocation, the leftover flats will also be freed up for first-timers.

The revised scheme also gives a leg-up to applicants who have tried and failed in four or more ballots.

On your fifth attempt, for example, you will be accorded one extra chance. This means your name goes into the ballot one more time.

For your sixth try, you get entered two more times, and so on.

An HDB spokesman said about 380 applicants were unsuccessful for four or more times in BTO and balloting exercises under the priority scheme run from January 2002 to March this year.

Balloting is used when the number of applicants outstrips available flats in an estate. It often occurs when new flats, or those in popular, mature estates are up for grabs.

The move follows a recent announcement by the Minister of State for National Development, Ms Grace Fu, that the HDB would refine the priority scheme for home-seekers with greater needs.

This was one of the central issues raised during several dialogues with residents, called Forum on HDB Heartware, that started last November.

The forum set out to find ways of boosting community ties and giving residents more say in how estates are run.

The HDB said yesterday that under the old scheme, 80 per cent of flat supply generally goes to first-timers. It also added that ‘the improvement in chances will depend on flat supply and the number of applicants’.

The new priority scheme gets its first tryout at Punggol Vista, a BTO project launched yesterday.

Located at the junction of Punggol Central and Punggol Road, the project has 628 units ranging from two-room to four-room flats. Applications close on Sept 3.

First-timer Leonard Tan, 27, who has been unsuccessful in balloting for an HDB flat, welcomed the change.

The air force regular and his wife qualified as a newly-wed couple who wanted to live near their parents, but they were assigned a queue number in excess of 2,000 in a balloting exercise for 465 flats.

‘I’m more confident now of my chances, although with so many first-timers in the market, I know competition will still be tough,’ he said yesterday.