In 2025, HDB will provide 19,600 BTO apartments due to the ongoing increase in resale

In 2025, HDB will provide 19,600 BTO apartments due to the ongoing increase in resale values

3,800 of these units will have a waiting period shorter than three years.

January 16, 2025

Over the course of three sales exercises, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will provide roughly 19,600 Build-To-Order (BTO) apartments.

It stated that more than 25,000 new apartments will be introduced this year, including the more than 5,500 Sale of Balance Flats (SBF).

The supply expansion coincides with a steady rise in HDB resale prices, which increased 9.6% in 2024.

Resale prices increased in the final quarter of 2024, according to flash estimates issued in early January, although at a slower rate of 2.5% as opposed to the 2.7% observed in the third quarter.

HDB announced on Thursday, January 16, that it is on track to deliver 100,000 apartments between 2021 and 2025 with the planned offer of 19,600 BTO apartments.

Compared to the 2,876 BTO apartments offered in 2024, 3,800 of the new apartments will have a waiting period of less than three years. Additionally, it exceeds HDB's pledged yearly supply of 2,000–3,000 Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) apartments.

In order to assist first-time flat purchasers, the agency stated that it will keep adding SWT apartments annually and endeavour to shorten the wait times for other BTO apartments.

In order to accomplish this, HDB stated that it has created a priority category called First-Timer (Parents and Married Couples), which gives married couples and families with small children an additional ballot chance when applying for a BTO or SBF flat.

This implies that when they apply for any kind of flat in any estate, they have three ballot chances in total.

Priority is also given to married couples and families with small children when they apply for a smaller, four-room Standard BTO apartment.

Regarding applications, HDB announced that it would carry out one SBF exercise and three BTO sale exercises.

It pointed out that the pre-pandemic rate of 3.7 in 2019 was higher than the 2024 rate of 2.1 for first-time homebuyers across all apartment types, indicating a decline in BTO application rates. The application rate for larger apartments and three-roomers decreased from four in 2019 to 2.2.

In order to satisfy housing demand in the upcoming years, HDB stated that it will keep building a "steady pipeline of flats." Between 2025 and 2027, more than 50,000 apartments are to be introduced.

The HDB resale market will have the smallest supply of apartments in 2025, with about 7,000 units meeting the five-year minimum occupation period, according to Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia. This is because the 2020 Covid pandemic caused work stoppages in the construction sector.

He went on to say that as the government builds more BTO and SBF apartments, homebuyers will have more options, stabilising the resale market.

According to Lee, HDB resale flat transactions will range from 26,000 to 28,000, and prices will continue to rise in 2025, albeit more slowly, by 5 to 8%.

The government has tightened regulations for non-selection of new HDB apartments in order to guarantee more efficient apartment allocation.

According to the agency, as a result, nearly all apartments are now reserved by applicants within the first 200 percent of the available apartments.

"Beginning with the February 2025 sales exercise, HDB will shortlist applicants up to 200 percent of the total flat supply, instead of up to 300 percent," stated National Development Minister Desmond Lee.

"This modification will increase system efficiency, allowing HDB to serve shortlisted applicants more quickly," he continued.

HDB will provide roughly 5,000 BTO apartments in Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown, Woodlands, and Yishun during the February sales exercise. Additionally, it will host its biggest SBF exercise.

Of the apartments to be offered in the SBF exercise, about four out of ten are finished units; the remaining apartments are still being built. They are expected to be finished between 2025 and 2028.