TRANSITIONAL RENTAL HOUSING SCHEME

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TRANSITIONAL RENTAL HOUSING SCHEME: 8.

Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for National Development whether he will consider reviving the Transitional Rental Housing Scheme which allowed newly-wed couples to rent flats from the HDB pending allocation of their new purchase flats to assist them in their efforts to set up a home.

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman (for the Minister for National Development): Mr Speaker, Sir, newly-weds have a variety of housing options while waiting for their new flats to be ready. For example, they can live with their parents or in-laws. If they prefer to stay by themselves, they can rent a whole flat or room in the open market; or they could buy a resale flat in the interim.

Mdm Halimah's suggestion will provide another way to meet the interim housing needs of newly-wed couples. HDB will look into its feasibility, bearing in

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mind the housing needs of the different groups which it caters for.

We thank Mdm Halimah Yacob for her suggestion, and we will continue to review that suggestion.

Mdm Halimah Yacob: I thank the Parliamentary Secretary for his affirmative response. My supplementary question is: when will the review be done? The three options that he mentioned – living with parents, renting from the market and also buying a resale flat – may not necessarily be viable options for some newly-weds or, in fact, quite a number of the newly-weds. When will the review be done?

Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman: Sir, we are currently reviewing that suggestion. In the context of the larger move that we have implemented recently, we want to try to make sure that newly-weds are able to access their flats earlier. For example, the Prime Minister announced earlier that we are going to ramp up the supply of BTO flats, and also reduce the waiting duration for our younger couples. We will make the review inline with all these new initiatives.