HDB will also streamline its income assessment guidelines and its assessment of households’ eligibility for housing subsidies

From 9 May 2023, HDB will introduce a new HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter to provide flat buyers with a holistic understanding and assessment of their housing and financing options before they commence their home buying journey. The HFE letter, which will replace the current HDB Loan Eligibility (HLE) letter, will inform flat buyers upfront of their eligibility for a new or resale flat purchase, CPF housing grants, and HDB housing loan, including the respective grant and loan amounts. More details are provided at Annex A.

2 With the implementation of the HFE letter, HDB will retrieve personal particulars from Myinfo for eligibility assessment. This will provide flat applicants with greater convenience, and reduce the number of documents that they will need to submit to HDB. To facilitate the link-up, HDB will in tandem streamline its income assessment guidelines, including the income assessment period. HDB will also adjust the way it assesses households’ eligibility for housing subsidies for greater consistency.

Income Assessment Period and Other Guidelines

3 HDB will standardise the income assessment period to 12 months (where income months are available), instead of the most recent three or six months. This approach leverages available data to allow for a more consistent assessment across applicants, who may have jobs with different work nature and remuneration structures. It will also provide a clearer assessment of an applicant’s income level, especially for those whose income fluctuates from month to month.

4 Other changes include the cut-off date of the income assessment period and income components considered. See Annex B for details.

Assessment of Household Eligibility for Housing Subsidy

5 HDB will also streamline the assessment of household eligibility for housing subsidies. Currently, a household’s eligibility for housing subsidies is generally assessed based on all applicants and core occupiers. With the implementation of the HFE letter, a household’s eligibility to enjoy housing subsidies will be assessed based on the core family nucleus, which is formed by the core applicants and core occupiers. These are the applicants and occupiers who enable the household to meet the eligibility conditions for the flat purchase.

6 Moving forward, all members of the core nucleus, including core occupiers, will enjoy the housing subsidy, and the housing grants will be shared among the core nucleus, for first time applicants. (see Annex C for examples). Correspondingly, second-timer applicants in the core family nucleus who had previously enjoyed a housing subsidy will now be required to pay their resale levy before collecting the keys to their second subsidised flat.

7 For the majority of households, there will be no change in the overall grant amount enjoyed, as their eligibility for housing grants will continue to be assessed on a household-basis¹.

8 HDB will also consider the eligibility of the core nucleus for other conditions, including the continuous employment condition for the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG), and home-for-life condition for EHG. The assessment of household income and ownership of private property for subsidy eligibility², will continue to be based on all persons listed in the application. See Annex D for details.

Moving forward

9 With the implementation of the HFE letter and enhancements made to the HDB Flat Portal, flat buyers can look forward to a more seamless buying process. HDB will continue to streamline and enhance its processes to bring about greater convenience to flat buyers and sellers.

¹ In assessing a household’s eligibility to buy a flat, receive housing grants and take an HDB housing loan, HDB will also continue to consider the incomes and private property ownership records of all persons listed in the application.
² HDB will continue to assess the HDB housing loan amount based on the income of all applicants only.