Wait-out period waived for 220 private homeowners with purchase options for resale flats: MND

SINGAPORE — The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has waived the 15-month wait-out period for 220 private homeowners who had obtained an option to purchase a HDB resale flat, before the measure aimed at cooling demand for public housing was announced at the end of September.

These 220 cases were among 650 appeals that the board has received from current and former private home owners who faced challenges in getting a HDB flat due to the new regulation.

“For these home seekers, HDB has exercised flexibility and waived the 15-month wait-out period for all of them,” said Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Thursday (Oct 20).

Responding to parliamentary questions on HDB resale flat transactions involving private property owners and the impact of the latest cooling measures, Mr Lee also said that HDB will assess other appeals on a case-by-case basis.

These cases include another group of home seekers, namely those who have yet to obtain a purchase option but may have committed to sell or recently sold their existing private property.

On Sept 29, the Government announced that private property owners will now have to serve a temporary wait-out period of 15 months after selling their homes before they are allowed to buy a non-subsidised resale flat, as part of a slew of new measures to cool the resale flat market.

Buyers aged 55 and above, along with their spouses, would not be affected by the new wait-out period if they are moving from their private property to a four-room or smaller resale flat.

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin, parliamentarian for Ang Mo Kio Group Representation Constituency, asked MND for the number of HDB resale flat transactions involving buyers who are private property owners.

She also asked what proportion of such buyers who paid cash over valuation and who are above 55 years old.

In his reply on Thursday, Mr Lee repeated that the number of private property owners buying HDB resale flats has doubled in 2021 and the first three quarters of 2022, as compared to 2019 and 2020.  

This group, which included those who had sold their private property up to 15 months before their resale flat application, made up about one in 10 resale flat buyers in the past three years. 

He added that proportionally, more of such buyers pay cash-over-valuation (COV) compared to other resale flat buyers.

“And they also pay higher COV amounts. This is generally because many of these private property owners have more financial means to pay for resale flats, as compared to first time flat buyers or HDB upgraders,” he said.