NDR 2024: Priority access to BTO flats to be extended to singles living with or near parents from mid-2025

SINGAPORE — From mid-2025, singles and their parents who are buying new flats to live with or near each other will get priority access to Build-to-Order (BTO) public housing units.
Currently, only married children and their parents get this priority access, which makes it easier for families to look after one another,
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said: “I think we shouldn’t limit this to married children. After all, many single children also want to stay close to their aged parents to take care of them.” 
He was delivering his first National Day Rally speech on Sunday (Aug 18) since being sworn in as Singapore’s fourth prime minister on May 15.
Right now, singles looking for BTO flats can only buy two-room flexi units, and only after they have turned 35.
While he acknowledged the concerns that singles in Singapore have on housing, Mr Wong said: “It’s hard for us to make any major near-term changes, because we are still ramping up the supply of new flats to catch up with the demand.”
Still, extending priority access to BTO flats to all parents and their children — married or single — is one move that the Government can make now, he added.
More details will be provided by the Ministry of National Development (MND) at a later date.
The Covid-19 pandemic had caused disruption to the construction industry, which led to the supply of new Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats slowing down, Mr Wong said. 
Nevertheless, this backlog for all BTO projects delayed by the pandemic will be cleared by early next year, he added.
MND had previously committed to launching 100,000 BTO flats from 2021 to 2025. 
It is on track to doing so: By December, more than 80,000 units will be completed. All 100,000 units will be delivered by next year, Mr Wong said.
The waiting time for most BTO projects is now around four years, Mr Wong added, but the Government aims to shorten this by “building ahead of demand”.
“Over time, more BTO projects will have waiting times of less than three years.”
At the National Day Rally in 2023, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced that public housing projects would be classified differently from the second half of 2024.
The mature and non-mature estate classification would be phased out, and new public housing projects would instead be classified under the categories of Standard, Plus and Prime.
Providing an update on this on Sunday, Mr Wong said that the first batch of BTO projects under this new framework will be launched in October this year.
The October sales exercise will include BTO projects in towns such as Sengkang, Bayshore and Kallang-Whampoa, he added.
In his speech, Mr Wong also announced plans to help lower-income households.
Currently, all first-time applicants for new flats can get an enhanced Central Provident Fund (CPF) housing grant of up to S$80,000.
The Government will increase this grant amount, especially for lower-income households.
More details on this will be shared by Minister for National Development Desmond Lee soon.
In 2020, the authorities had announced the launch of community care apartments in Bukit Batok for residents aged 65 and above.
These apartments, intended as a new housing concept that integrates elder-friendly housing with care and social services, would come with elder-friendly features and services such as 24-hour emergency monitoring.
Mr Wong said on Sunday that the keys to the first community care apartments, Harmony Village@Bukit Batok, will be handed over to residents later this year.
The Government will also continue to launch more of such projects, “integrating housing with care”.
“Of course, there are seniors who prefer not to move — they want to age in place, where they currently live. 
“So we are also studying ways to improve our existing homes and make them more senior-friendly,” Mr Wong said, adding that the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of National Development are “actively working” on this.
Mr Wong also provided updates on Singapore’s house price-to-income ratio, which tracks how the prices of HDB flats move in relation to incomes.
The ratio for the median price of four-room HDB resale flats after grants, compared to the median annual household income in Singapore, was 4.8 a decade ago in 2014.
This meant that the price of the resale flat was nearly five times the annual income.
Though this went down to below 4.0 over the years, the ratio spiked up to 5.0 after the pandemic, Mr Wong said.
“It is now slightly better, but it’s still higher than the pre-Covid-19 years. It’s now the same as it was a decade ago.”
Even then, Mr Wong noted that Singapore’s current house price-to-income ratios are “significantly lower” than most major cities in the world such as in Hong Kong, London and Sydney.
“But there’s still work to be done. And we are pressing on with efforts to make flats more affordable.
“The key is to ramp up supply, which we have been doing and will continue to do.
“This is my assurance to all young Singaporeans: Once you start work and wish to settle down, we will make sure that there is an HDB flat that is within your budget, in every region.”