Residential
The eligibility conditions to buy an HDB flat (3-room flats and bigger) are detailed below. If you intend to buy a 2-room Flexi flat, please refer to information about the 2-room Flexi scheme.
Alternatively, you can also use our e-Service to check your eligibility to buy an HDB flat.
Before submitting your application, we advise that you learn more about the financial planning involved in a purchase, and the conditions that apply after you buy a new flat.
A new HDB flat is subsidised and meant for Singapore Citizens. You and any other applicants and essential occupiers need to meet several eligibility conditions such as age, income, and property ownership.
Eligible Applicant/ Family Nucleus
Citizenship
Age
Income Ceiling
Property Ownership
# First-timer households comprising only 1 Singapore Citizen and 1 or more Singapore Permanent Resident family members will have to pay $10,000 premium at the point of flat purchase. You may apply for the additional $10,000 Citizen Top-Up Grant when your spouse gets Singapore Citizenship or when you have an Singapore Citizen child. Find out more information about the Citizen Top-Up Grant eligibility conditions.
Under our eligibility schemes for new flats, you can get a new flat as a couple or a family.
If you are an unmarried parent and would like to apply for a flat from HDB, please email us at hdbsales@mailbox.hdb.gov.sg. We will contact you soon after to understand more about your circumstances.
You form a family nucleus with any of the following:
#If the care and control of your children under the age of 21 is shared with your ex-spouse, you must obtain his/her written agreement before you can list your children in a flat application. If you face difficulties in obtaining the agreement or have a question for us, please send us an email at hdbsales@mailbox.hdb.gov.sg.
Applications under this scheme are only valid if there are no changes to the people listed in the application. This means that in the case of a break-up, you are not allowed to subsequently include the name(s) of a new fiancé/fiancée or your parents in the application, even if your ex-fiance/fiancée agrees.
For 3Gen flat applications, a multi-generation family is any of the following:
* The couple must be eligible to buy a flat under the Public Scheme or Fiancé/Fiancée Scheme.
^ At least 1 parent must be a Singapore Citizen or Singapore Permanent Resident.
#If the care and control of your children under the age of 21 is shared with your ex-spouse, you must obtain his/her written agreement before you can list your children in a flat application.
If you face difficulties in obtaining the agreement or have a question for us, please send us an email at hdbsales@mailbox.hdb.gov.sg.
You form a family nucleus with your spouse-to-be. Please note the following for the Fiancé/Fiancée Scheme.
Under this scheme, you need to solemnise your marriage within 3 months of collecting your keys to your flat. If your marriage is registered overseas, please submit a photocopy of your marriage certificate to us.
That person can only be listed as an essential occupier in the flat application. Written consent from that person’s parents/ guardians must be submitted during the flat selection appointment.
* The couple must be eligible to buy a flat under the Public Scheme.
You and your siblings (those applying) are orphans and single, i.e. unmarried, divorced or widowed:
Please note that under the Orphans Scheme, siblings cannot buy/ rent flats separately.
The income ceiling depends on the type of flat you intend to get. If your average gross monthly household income exceeds the income ceiling, you will not be eligible for that flat type.
#$7,000 or $14,000, depending on project.
Our press release during the sales launches will specify the income ceiling for each project.
^ Applicable for sales exercise launched from September 2019. For flat applications received for sales exercises launched before September 2019, income ceilings are $12,000 and $18,000 (if purchasing with extended or multi-generation family)
# Applicable for sales exercise launched from September 2019. For flat applications received for sales exercises launched before September 2019, income ceilings are $6,000 or $12,000 depending on project
For your flat application, you and any other applicants and essential occupiers will need to prepare specific documents depending on your nature of employment. Also, please note that some forms of income/ allowance are not included when assessing your household income.
For your flat application, you and the other applicants and essential occupiers will need to get ready the following documents for our verification:
Aside from the above documents, we may also request other documents for verification if needed.
Nature of Employment
Documents to Submit
Notes
Employed person
or
Note: If your income includes allowances, we will require 6 months’ payslips preceding the month of application.
Self-employed person
and
Assessment is based on the average gross monthly income
The undertaking for applicants/occupiers to affirm their average gross monthly income will be included in the invitation package for flat selection. Applicants/occupiers will have to complete the undertaking and submit it during the flat selection appointment.
Part-time worker
Commission-based person
Odd job worker
Unemployed person (between 18 to 62 years old)
If the applicant/occupier is not in Singapore, he/she may complete the undertaking and arrange for a proxy to submit it during the flat selection appointment.
Income/ allowance that will be considered for income assessment
Allowances (fixed/ variable) received on a regular basis (e.g. allowances for food, transport, laundry, uniform, etc.)
Sustenance allowance
Alimony allowance
Bonuses
Director's fee
Income from ad hoc overtime work
Interest from deposit accounts
National Service Allowance
Rental income
Scholarship overseas allowance
Overseas cost of living allowance
Pension
This income ceiling for extended/ multi-generation family is set at a higher level of $21,000 to encourage and help working adults and their parents to live as an extended family in a flat. This includes married couples, their siblings, and their parents. It is calculated using the combined income of 2 set groups in the extended family.
The set groups and income ceiling calculation are as follows:
Household Type
Income of Group A
(Cannot exceed #$14,000)
Income of Group B
Extended Family Income Ceiling
Parents* with single children
Parents and 1 of the single children
Remaining single children
Group A + Group B must not exceed #$21,000
Parents* with married children^
Parents and remaining working children (if any)
The married children and their children (if any)
* Includes widow/ widower or divorcee
^ Includes applicants applying under the Fiancé/Fiancée Scheme
# Applicable for sales exercise launched from September 2019. For flat applications received for sales exercises launched before September 2019, income ceilings are $12,000 and $18,000 (for extended or multi-generation family)
A married couple and their 3 working children wish to buy a new flat. Individually, their average gross monthly income is:
Their average gross monthly income as an extended family thus works out as:
Total = $13,000
Total = $7,000
Total = $20,000
The extended family’s income is within the income ceiling.
Yes. There are instances where you may need to wait out a set time period before you can apply or be listed in the application for a new flat.
This usually happens when someone:
Before applying for the new flat, you need to check if you or any other flat applicant(s)/ essential occupier(s) to be listed in the flat application own any of these:
If so, that person must have already met that flat/ EC’s 5-year MOP before he can apply for a new flat. An essential occupier must also have met the flat/ EC's 5-year MOP before he can be listed in a new flat application.
In the case of ECs, you must also wait out a 30-month period from the EC’s effective date of disposal, which we will verify using your Notice of Transfer, or any other such documentation we may require.
Type of Property
Time Period Before You Can Apply for a New HDB Flat
MOP of 5 years
If you book a flat and subsequently cancel your booking, you must wait out a 1-year period from the date of the cancellation before you can apply or be listed as an essential occupier of a:
2 non-selections of a flat
If you are a second-timer applicant or first-timer single that does not book a flat after being invited to do so for 2 times in a row, you need to wait 1 year from the date of the second non-selection before you can participate in an HDB sales launch.
Second-Timer Applicant/ First-Timer Single
Can Apply for a New Flat?
Is successfully balloted and invited to select a flat, but does not do so.
Yes
Gets successfully balloted a second time, and once again does not select a flat.
Not for 1 year
A first-timer applicant is a person or household that has never received any form of housing subsidy, or similar benefit; a second-timer applicant is a person or household that has. If you are a second-timer and your spouse/ spouse-to-be is a first-timer, you as a couple will enjoy first-timer privileges and priority.
First-timers enjoy privileges and priority in flat allocation.
Yours will be treated as a first-timer application if you and any of the other listed owners and essential occupiers meet the following criteria:
Prior consent must be obtained from the Official Assignee (OA) or the private trustee, if you are applying to buy an HDB flat that is bigger than a 5-room flat or a 3Gen-flat. From 1 February 2016 onwards, prior consent is also required to buy any flat type with a net purchase price of $500,000 or above, after taking into account any HDB subsidies or levy.
You do not need to seek prior consent from the OA or the private trustee to be listed as an occupier of a flat.
When buying a new HDB flat, a resale levy is payable if you have previously bought a new HDB flat, a DBSS flat or an EC from the developers, or received a CPF Housing Grant.
No, you may not. For a new flat application, all the listed owners and essential occupiers must not own, dispose, or have an estate or interest in any other local or overseas property:
Exemptions may be possible for exceptional cases. To apply, please fill and submit this property questionnaire.
The properties considered in this instance include but are not limited to:
Yes, provided that you only own/ owned 1 of the following units prior to your application:
In essence, an eligible Singapore Citizen is allowed to buy the above properties twice in total, not twice per type of property.
If you have already bought 2 such properties, you will not be eligible to apply for a new flat or be listed as an essential occupier in an application.
If you have been invited to select a flat, you may check out the flats available for selection
