15-month wait-out period for private property owners to buy HDB resale flats removed: Chee Hong Tat

SINGAPORE: The 15-month wait-out period for people who sell their private properties to buy Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats will be removed with immediate effect, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat announced on Tuesday (Jul 28). Speaking at the 11th Singapore Economic Review Conference, Mr Chee said that authorities recognised that with the wait-out period, households with genuine housing needs faced inconvenience and disruption to their plans to switch from private properties to resale flats. “As market conditions have improved, we have assessed that the 15-month wait-out period has met its purpose and will be removed with immediate effect,” he said. The removal of the wait-out period means private residential property owners and former owners of such properties can now buy a non-subsidised HDB resale flat without an HDB housing loan, said the Ministry of National Development (MND). The HDB resale market has shown signs of stabilisation. HDB resale prices have declined for two consecutive quarters since the start of the year – the resale price index fell 0.1 per cent in the first quarter, and 0.3 per cent in the second quarter. This follows five consecutive quarters of slower or no price growth from the last quarter of 2024 to the fourth quarter of 2025. "This is further supported by a larger number of new flats completing their minimum occupation period (MOP) and entering the resale market over the next few years. The government has therefore assessed that the 15-month wait-out period can now be removed," said MND.

TEMPORARY MEASURE During the COVID-19 pandemic, the construction of new Build-to-Order (BTO) flats was affected. At the same time, housing demand increased as societal trends shifted towards smaller household sizes. A low interest rate environment made it cheaper to service a housing loan, Mr Chee said. These factors led to an "imbalance in supply and demand" that caused resale prices to rise. HDB increased the supply of BTO flats, but supply took time to increase as the construction industry was still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. The government introduced several property cooling measures during the pandemic, including the 15-month wait-out period in September 2022. The move was to moderate the demand for HDB resale flats and help prioritise access to HDB flats for Singaporeans with more urgent housing needs, such as first-time homebuyers. Authorities said then that it would be a temporary measure. Singaporeans aged 55 and above were exempted from the 15-month wait-out period if they moved from their private property to a four-room or smaller non-subsidised HDB resale flat. Since its introduction in 2022, HDB has processed about 1,800 appeals annually from private property owners to waive the 15-month wait-out period. This number has been “stable” over the last few years, with HDB acceding to about one in four appeals, the ministry said in a written parliamentary reply last year. This is mainly for households in financial difficulties or extenuating circumstances, who have no alternative housing options. MND said on Tuesday that for those with pending appeals, they no longer needed to wait for HDB's reply and can proceed to apply for an HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter directly. HDB will also be contacting these appellants directly. Private property owners will be required to sell their units – whether in Singapore or overseas – within six months from the completion of the HDB resale flat purchase. For private property owners who wish to buy a subsided HDB flat – a BTO flat with or without grants, or a resale flat with housing grants – or an executive condominium (EC) unit from a property developer, they will still need to wait for 30 months after the sale of their unit. This will also apply to those who intend to get an HDB loan for their flat purchase. Those who want to buy an HDB flat will have to get an HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter. For those with HFE applications that are being processed, HDB will automatically update their eligibility status, and no action is required. On Tuesday, Mr Chee reiterated that the government is looking to lower the eligibility age of 35 for singles to buy HDB flats.

The government believes in the importance of ensuring every generation of Singaporeans will continue to have access to affordable public housing, said Mr Chee in his speech. Failure to adequately address issues like housing affordability and widening wealth inequality has fuelled “deep social frustrations” in many other societies, feeding the rise of ultra right-wing politics and even xenophobia, said the minister. “Singapore must not go down this path. We have to stay open, we have to stay connected with the world, so that we can continue to grow our economy, improve the lives of our people by creating good jobs that can increase their real wages over time,” he added. “And we must also have an economy that can generate the fiscal resources to invest in important areas such as housing, education, healthcare, and also the ability to defend ourselves and develop our resilience against future shocks in this fast-changing world.”