Helping every Singaporean own their home

Our public housing programme has come a long way since its inception, and HDB remains steadfast in our mission to deliver affordable and quality homes for Singaporeans. Singapore's home ownership rate is among the highest in the world, with about 8 in 10 residents owning the HDB flats they live in. Take a look at how HDB provides affordable homes for Singaporeans.

Encouraging home ownership

Home ownership is the cornerstone of Singapore’s public housing programme. Since 1968, home buyers can use their Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings to pay for the downpayment and monthly mortgage instalments of their HDB flat, reducing the need for cash outlay. Most first-time buyers use little or no cash to service their housing loan. Besides providing significant market discounts on for new flats, we also provide eligible first-timers with CPF housing grants to help them buy a new or resale flat.

Prioritising Singaporeans with urgent housing needs

Most new flats are set aside for couples and families applying to buy a flat for the first time, as they generally have more urgent housing needs.

At the same time, we recognise that every family’s situation is unique. Thats is why we have priority schemes to support different needs, including:

Families with 3 or more children
Second-time applicants who are divorced or widowed with children aged 18 or below
Parents who wish to live with or near their married or single child and vice versa
Rental tenants, to help them progress to home ownership

A flat for every budget and need

As Singapore's population ages, we have introduced new flat typologies to meet our seniors’ evolving lifestyle needs, such as 2-room Flexi flats and Community Care Apartments (CCAs) designed with their safety and comfort in mind. These housing options are offered on shorter lease periods, to allow seniors to right-size and use the sale proceeds of their flats to supplement their retirement incomes. The Lease Buyback Scheme and Silver Housing Bonus also offer seniors more ways to unlock the value of their flats, depending on whether they prefer to remain in or move out of their current flat.

Since the introduction of the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme in 1991, the Government has been progressively enhancing access to public housing for singles. With the classification of Build-to-Order (BTO) projects as Standard, Plus and Prime flats since October 2024, eligible first-timer singles now have even more housing options – they can purchase new 2-room Flexi flats islandwide, and not just in non-mature estates. Those looking to buy a larger flat can continue to buy resale flats of any size (except 3Gen flats).

For vulnerable households who are not yet ready for home ownership, HDB also supports them through our Public Rental Scheme.

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