• Includes 2,800 Shorter Waiting Time flats with waiting time of less than 3 years to be offered in 2024

• Three BTO exercises to be held in February, June and October

• In 2023, HDB has completed about 21,400 flats across some 23 projects – the highest number of projects and flats completed annually since 2018.

In 2024, HDB will launch about 19,600 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats across three sales exercises in February, June and October. To meet the increased housing demand in recent years, HDB has ramped up the supply of BTO flats to offer more than 63,000 flats in the last 3 years - 17,100 flats in 2021, 23,200 flats in 2022, and 22,800 flats in 2023. With the launch of 19,600 BTO flats in 2024, we remain on track to offer 100,000 flats from 2021 to 2025.

More Shorter Waiting Time Flats in 2024

2. Among the 19,600 new flats scheduled for launch in 2024, more than 2,800 flats (or about 14% of the flat supply) will be Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) flats with waiting time of less than 3 years. This is close to 4 times compared to the 732 SWT flats offered in 2023. With this, HDB will achieve our target of launching around 2,000 to 3,000 SWT flats per year, one year ahead of schedule in 2024, instead of 2025.

Reduced Waiting Time for New BTO Flats

3. To better support the homeownership aspirations of Singaporeans, HDB will work towards having 3 out of 4 new flats (or 75%) slated for launch in 2024 to have waiting times of 4 years or less. In 2023, close to 70% of the flats have waiting times of 4 years or less. This is back to pre-pandemic levels where majority of BTO projects had waiting times of 3 to 4 years, and down from the pandemic peak of 4 to 5 years.

4. To this end, HDB has been working on various measures to shorten project waiting times without compromising quality and safety, and to launch more SWT projects in the coming years. These measures include, for example, prioritisation of sites where construction works can begin earlier, and breaking up larger BTO projects into smaller projects for more efficient resource management by contractors to shorten the project duration and expedite project completion.

5. HDB will also press on with efforts to recalibrate our building programme over time so that SWT flats form a larger proportion of our supply of new flats. This will further strengthen our support for Singaporeans, especially first-timers, who want to own their first homes.

Three Sales Launches Planned for 2024

6. Currently, buyers can apply for a flat under different modes of sale, depending on their needs and preferences. These modes of sale are BTO sales exercises, Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises and open booking of flats. Vast majority of flat buyers purchase flats under the BTO exercises, where there is a wide range of flats to meet different budgets and needs for each new BTO project on offer. Flat supply for the SBF exercise and open booking of flats are limited, but they enable buyers to secure a home sooner.

7. From 2024, HDB will conduct three BTO exercises and one SBF exercise in a year. This comes on the back of the stabilisation of BTO application rates.

a. Specifically, BTO application rates of first-timer (FT) home buyers for all flat types in 2023 was 1.9, which is much lower than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.7 in 2019. In the latest December 2023 sales launch, the median application rate for FT applicants for 3-room and bigger flats, which are the flat types that vast majority of FT applicants apply for, was only 0.8. This is significantly lower than the median FT application rates for 3-room and bigger flats during the pandemic years which ranged from 2.0 to 6.8. In fact, the median FT application rates have been moderating since November 2022, when it was 1.8, and are similar to or lower than the pre-COVID years (i.e., from 2017 to 2019) where application rates ranged from 1.1 to 3.7.

b. Overall BTO application rates. On the whole, BTO application rates for 2023 was lower than recent years.

8. With three BTO launches instead of four, home buyers can look forward to a bigger housing supply at each launch. This will enable them to select from a wider range of flats and locations. This means that applicants at every BTO launch will now be able to enjoy a higher chance of success in finding a flat that meets their budget and needs. In addition, this will reduce the extent of overlap between the selection exercises and provide greater certainty for home buyers. From the October 2024 sales exercise, HDB will implement the new classification and launch flats under the Standard, Plus and Prime categories. HDB will also hold an SBF exercise in February 2024, together with the BTO sales exercise, to offer home buyers more housing options. See Annex A for the tentative flat supply for the Feb 2024 SBF exercise.

9. HDB remains committed to provide affordable and accessible housing options to buyers, and will continue to monitor the response and refine our sales processes where necessary.

Advice for home buyers

10. Since the October 2023 BTO sales exercise, applicants who wish to participate in any of the HDB sales exercises must have a valid HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter¹ when they submit their flat application. It takes about a month to process an HFE letter application after HDB receives all the required documents. Applicants will be informed via SMS on the outcome of their HFE letter application when it is ready for their viewing on the HDB Flat Portal, or if they need to submit additional documents for HDB’s review.

11. In February 2024, HDB will offer about 4,100 BTO flats in Bedok, Queenstown, Choa Chu Kang, Hougang, Punggol and Woodlands, and another about 1,500 SBF flats across various towns/estates. The supply will be subject to review as details are firmed up closer to the launch date. We encourage all flat buyers to apply for an HFE letter early and submit all required documents by 15 January 2024 if they are interested to participate in the February 2024 BTO and SBF exercises. As the number of HFE applications tend to peak closer to sales launches, those who do not submit all the required documents by 15 Jan 2024, when applying for their HFE letters, will not receive their HFE letter in time for flat application at the February 2024 BTO and SBF sales exercises. They will then have to apply in a subsequent sales launch, or alternatively, buy a resale flat upon receiving a valid HFE letter. More information on the HFE letter is available on the HDB InfoWEB.

Delivering flats to home buyers

12. Even as HDB rolls out new flats to meet housing demand, we remain committed to delivering quality homes to Singaporeans. In 2023, HDB completed about 21,400 flats across some 23 housing projects (refer to Annex B). This marks the highest number of flats and projects completed annually in the last six years. With these completions, HDB has continued to catch up on construction delays and successfully delivered about 80% of the pandemic-delayed projects, or a total of 73 projects from October 2020 to December 2023. Barring unforeseen circumstances, HDB aims to complete all pandemic-delayed projects by early 2025. With the steady completion of flats, more home buyers have also been collecting the keys to their new homes. Between 1 Jan to 31 Dec 2023, HDB issued over 22,300 sets of keys to flat buyers, which is 31% more than in 2022.

¹ The HFE letter is valid for 9 months and 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.

19,600 BTO Flats to be Launched in 2024 Across Three Sales Exercises