Budget 2018: Govt enhances proximity housing grant for resale flat buyers

Families buying a HDB resale flat to live with their parents or married children will now enjoy an enhanced PHG of $30,000.

UPDATED: In his Budget 2018 speech on Monday (19 February), Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat announced several new enhancements to the Proximity Housing Grant (PHG) to help Singaporeans looking to live with or near their loved ones.

Families buying a HDB resale flat to live with their parents or married children will now enjoy an enhanced PHG of $30,000. A PHG of $20,000 will continue to be offered to those buying a resale flat to live near their parents or children.

At the same time, eligible singles who buy a resale flat to live with their parents will now receive a PHG of $15,000. Those who buy a unit to live near their parents will receive a PHG of $10,000.

The government will also revise the criteria for the PHG to within 4km, up from 2km previously.

Interestingly, in PropertyGuru’s recent Consumer Sentiment Survey, 80 percent of Singaporean respondents did not think that elderly-friendly homes matter to them, a two percent increase from the first half of 2017.

“With the Singapore government providing even more financial support to both families and singles who want to live with their aged parents, we believe that demand for elderly-friendly homes will increase,” said Hari V Krishnan, CEO of PropertyGuru Group.

“Furthermore, with some of the most searched districts on PropertyGuru being mature estates such as Marine Parade and Serangoon, increasing the distance from 2km to 4km for the PHG will provide young couples and singles with more housing options if their families live in these older areas with generally higher prices.”

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