3,000 public rental tenants purchased their first home: HDB

Most of the tenants opted to purchase 2-room Flexi and 3-room flats.

Thanks to the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) various housing grants, about 3,000 rental flat tenants were able to acquire their first home in the Build-To-Order (BTO) or Sales of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises between 2013 and 2017, reported Channel NewsAsia.

Each year, an average of 500 to 600 such tenants progress to have their own homes, revealed HDB.

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Of the 3,000 households who acquired a flat for the first time, about 50 percent opted to purchase a 3-room unit, while about 30 percent chose a 2-room Flexi flat, it added.

Around 80 percent acquired a flat with the help of the Special Housing Grant ($40,000) and/or the Additional CPF Housing Grant ($40,000). Of these, 109 received the $80,000 maximum housing grant.

Meanwhile, 20 percent booked a unit under the Tenants’ Priority Scheme.

The scheme sees 10 percent of the 3-room and 2-room Flexi flat supply in the BTO or SBF sales exercises being set aside for public rental tenant families who are looking to acquire their first home.

HDB noted that over 900 households have collected the keys to their new homes.

Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories, email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg