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More 2-room flats for singles in non-mature estates next year

SINGAPORE — Demand for two-room flats from singles continued to remain high, going by the response at the close of the latest Build-To-Order (BTO) exercise yesterday.

Singaporeans with non-citizen spouses are now allowed to buy two-room BTO flats, like these offered by the HDB in its July exercise. Photo: HDB

Singaporeans with non-citizen spouses are now allowed to buy two-room BTO flats, like these offered by the HDB in its July exercise. Photo: HDB

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SINGAPORE — Demand for two-room flats from singles continued to remain high, going by the response at the close of the latest Build-To-Order (BTO) exercise yesterday.

Acknowledging the “as expected” high demand in his blog entry yesterday, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan also announced the Government’s plans to ramp up two-room BTO supply in the non-mature estates to 5,000 units next year.

With 30 per cent of such flats set aside for singles aged 35 and above, this would translate into a total of 1,500 units for singles in these estates to help address the high demand.

In the latest exercise, leftover two-room flats in non-mature estates from previous BTO exercises were also put up for sale.

As of 5pm yesterday, there were about 7,800 applications from singles, which means about 19 to 20 singles are competing for each of the 400 units offered in seven estates.

Two-room units at Punggol Matilda Edge — the only BTO project offering such flats in this round — were the most popular among the singles, with an application rate of 26.8.

In the July BTO exercise — the first time two-room BTO flats were offered for singles — 8,800 singles vied for 155 units in Sengkang and Punggol, which worked out to an average of 55 applications per unit.

ERA Key Executive Officer Eugene Lim was not surprised by the high demand from singles and expected the same response for future BTO exercises “as there is still demand” from this group.

Applications for the latest BTO exercise closed at midnight yesterday. This was also the first exercise to offer Three-Generation (3Gen) flats, a new type of flat to cater to multi-generation families living together.

Mr Khaw said that the 84 3Gen flats put up for sale in Yishun attracted about 300 applications.

“This is a good start to the new scheme,” said Mr Khaw. “We deliberately bundled 3Gen flats together with five-room flats. This way, those who could not select a 3Gen flat will have the additional option of choosing a five-room flat. Alternatively, they could wait for the November BTO which will include about 100 units of 3Gen flats in Jurong West.”

The Government also rolled out the enhanced Multi-Generation Priority Scheme (MGPS) during the exercise. It allows parents to apply for three-room flats. Previously, parents under the scheme could only apply for a studio apartment or a two-room flat in the same BTO project as their married child.

“We have received very encouraging response from 42 pairs of MGPS applications,” he said.

“Among the MGPS applications, nine out of 10 parents applied for a three-room flat.”

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