HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT BOARD



Dear KEO,

Fulfilling the Minimum Occupation Period to Acquire Private Residential Property

HDB flats are meant for owner-occupation. Flat owners, spouses and essential occupiers have to fulfil a 5-year minimum occupation period (MOP) before they can acquire a private residential property.  However, some flat owners have attempted to circumvent the policy by buying a private residential property to hold in trust for another person during the MOP.

2 Acquiring private residential property to hold in trust for another person is not allowed during the MOP and this is an infringement of the Housing & Development Act. HDB takes a serious view of such infringement and will not hesitate to take action against errant flat owners who flout the rules.

3 Salespersons play a crucial role in advising their clients on their property purchases. Before making any purchase of private property, salespersons may advise flat owners to login to My HDBPage to check if they have met the MOP (see screenshot below).

4 Similarly, owners, spouses and essential occupiers of Executive Condominium (EC) units are not allowed to acquire private residential property (including the acquisition of property to hold in trust for another person) during the 5-year MOP of the EC, commencing from the date of issue of the Temporary Occupation Permit (TOP). Doing so would be an infringement of the Executive Condominium Housing Scheme Act. EC owners and salespersons can refer to the HDB InfoWEB (https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/residential/buying-a-flat/executive-condominium/application) for the TOP date of the EC development to check if the EC owners have met the 5-year MOP.

5 More information on HDB’s policies on private property ownership can be found on our HDB InfoWEB:

6 We would appreciate it if you could share the above information with your salespersons, so that they can safeguard the interests of their clients when advising them on property purchases.  Thank you.



Yours sincerely,


Lim Lea Lea
Director (Branch Operations)
Housing Management Group