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Singapore’s Housing & Development Board (HDB) Has Introduced Four Additional Measures

Putting up a business can be daunting at times. You usually experience stress and anxiety whenever you are into something new. This task can be nerve-wracking. Singapore business registration is easy. All you need to do is to pass an application online and wait for fifteen minutes. You also need to pay $65 Singaporean dollars. And voila, your business is registered. One of the most successful incorporation in Singapore is the Housing & Development Board (HDB).

Singapore launched four additional measures to help middle-class Singaporean workers afford their home and low-income families upgrade to larger houses to mitigate the support for their families.  The Housing and Development Board has limited its maximum loan tenure to 25 years instead of 30 years and the mortgage servicing ratio limit has also been cut to 30% of the borrower’s gross monthly salary, it was previously set a 35%. The measures are in line with those introduced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to encourage financial prudence among borrowers, which is especially important given that the current low interest rate environment is unlikely to be sustained,” HDB said. Singapore permanent residents (PRs) will also have to wait up to three years before they purchase a resold HDB property. Before, PRs can immediately purchase a property once they obtain the PR status. The HDB also provided more details of the extension of the Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG) and the new Step-Up CPF Housing Grant, which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong first announced during the National Day Rally. The income summit for SHG will be raised significantly, from S$2,250 a month to S$6,500 a month for families and S$3,250 for singles. Under the new Step-Up Housing Grant, families who want to upgrade from a two-room to a three-room flat could get a housing grant of 15,000 Singaporean dollars. A family who earns $4,000 now gets a $15,000 grant. But soon, up to $20,000 extra grant will be given to them under the Special Housing Grant, which currently covers only lower-income households earning $2,250 a month or less. The SHG will also be extended to first-time buyers of four-room flats in the non-mature estates.

HDB also introduced a new type of three-generation (3Gen) flat to offer to multi-generation families living under one roof. These flats will feature four bedrooms and three bathrooms with an internal floor area of about 115 square meters. In order to be qualified for 3Gen flats, one must form a multi-generation family including at least a married couple and their parents. To ensure that these purposely built 3Gen flats serve the target group, letting of rooms will be prohibited during the five-year Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) to make sure it serves its purpose. The first project with about 80 units of 3Gen flats was launched at Yishun in the September 2013 Built-to-Order (BTO) exercise. HDB said that they will monitor the feedbacks and generate the supply of 3Gen flats accordingly. Parents are allowed to apply for three-room flats, under the multi-generation priority scheme (MGPS). Currently, the scheme allows parents to jointly apply, with their married child(ren), for either a studio apartment or a two-room flat, together with another flat in the same project. All of the said measures will take effect immediately.

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