Less Stringent Criteria for Rental and Purchase of HDB Flats for Families Affected by Divorce or With School-going Children

Mr Zainal Sapari asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether HDB can review the eligible income criteria for HDB rental flats especially for families with children affected by divorce settlements; and (b) whether HDB can give special priority to families with school-going children in applications for HDB rental flats or units under the Sale of Balance Flats scheme.

The Minister of State for National Development (Dr Koh Poh Koon) (for the Minister for National Development): Mdm Speaker, the income ceiling and other eligibility criteria for rental flats are reviewed from time to time. At $1,500 per month of income, the current income ceiling enables us to prioritise our rental flat supply for low-income households.

Nevertheless, HDB exercises flexibility to allow some families with higher income to get a public rental flat, if they have no family support and no other viable housing options. These include divorced parents with children.

HDB also grants priority allocation of rental flats on a case-by-case basis to families with school-going children, for example to accommodate arrangements for the care of these children. Even without priority allocation, the waiting time for a rental flat has been reduced substantially from 21 months in 2008 to four months in 2015.

For Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) Exercises, HDB already gives priority to families with children through the Third Child Priority Scheme (TCPS) as well as the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS).

Mr Zainal Sapari (Pasir Ris-Punggol): Mdm Speaker, I thank the Minister of State for the answer. My follow-up question is, can HDB give priority to families who are not purchasing from the Sale of Balance Flats scheme as a first purchase. Basically, they are second-timers.

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Mdm Speaker, can I clarify with the Member again what is his follow-up question?

Mr Zainal Sapari: Madam, I have come across cases, many families, where they wanted to buy from the Sales of Balance Flats scheme, but it is not their first purchase. It could be their second or third purchase. Would priority be given to these families as well?

Dr Koh Poh Koon: Mdm Speaker, in HDB's planning norms, what we want to do is to allow first-timers to have greater priority in homeownership. Second-timers have already owned an HDB flat before, and so in that instance, they will not be given priority above first-timers.