Budget 2025: Over 50,000 new HDB flats to be launched in the next three years
The flats will be launched in estates including Woodlands, Bayshore and Mount Pleasant (Picture: Samuel Isaac Chua/The Edge Singapore)
More than 50,000 new HDB flats will be launched over the next three years, announced Prime Minister and Finance Minister Lawrence Wong in his Budget speech on Feb 18. The flats will be launched in housing estates islandwide, including in Woodlands, Bayshore and Mount Pleasant.
The pipeline comes as part of the government's efforts to keep public housing affordable and accessible, he says. Last year, more than eight in 10 first-timer families that collected keys to their BTO flats were able to service their mortgage loans with little or zero out-of-pocket cash. 'To put it in perspective, this is a level of affordability that residents in other major cities like London, Sydney and Hong Kong do not enjoy,' Prime Minister Wong adds.
Addressing concerns among homebuyers on higher prices of resale flats, Prime Minister Wong says the government's cooling and supply measures will eventually help to stabilise the resale market. Meanwhile, HDB will be launching 3,800 flats this year with a waiting time of less than three years, providing options for buyers seeking flats with shorter waiting times.
Read also: Budget 2025 allocations for R&D infrastructure, enterprise growth could give a boost to industrial and office real estate demand: JLL
In addition, a second Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercise will be held later this year, following the first one in February where 5,590 SBF units were launched for sale, making it the largest SBF exercise to date.
Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore, notes that the announcement of the 50,000 flats, while not new, reaffirms the government's intentions to boost BTO supply to meet housing demand. HDB had already announced in January that 50,000 flats will be launched between 2025 to 2027, contributing to the planned total of 130,000 flats launched from 2021 to 2027.
Nevertheless, while the higher BTO supply could help ease demand, Lim believes it will take 'some time' for HDB price growth to slow to a more sustainable price. 'While these initiatives are welcome, this ramp-up in BTO supply may not be able to meet immediate housing needs,' he says, adding that the flats are also likely to be launched in phases.
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