Children living with or near parents to get priority in HDB sales exercises, regardless of marital status, from July , Singapore News
That is when the new Family Care Scheme will kick in, said the HDB in a statement on Sunday (July 20). The launch date for the July BTO sales exercise has not been announced.
News that singles can get priority during the BTO application process was first announced by Prime Minister Lawrence Wong at the National Day Rally last year.
He had said that the Government will extend priority access to new flats to all parents and their children, regardless of marital status.
Priority access was previously reserved only for married couples and their parents.
HDB said in its statement last November that the new FCS — which has two components — streamlines three priority schemes for married couples, parents and seniors, and will also include singles.
The two components are FCS (Proximity) — which will be rolled out with the July BTO sales exercise — and FCS (Joint Balloting), which will be implemented end-2025.
For FCS (Proximity), both parents and children will have priority access if they are applying for a new flat to live with or near each other, regardless of marital status.
This replaces the current replaces the Married Child Priority Scheme and Senior Priority Scheme.
The FCS (Joint Balloting) is where parents and their children, regardless of marital status, will be able to jointly apply for two units in the same BTO project, where there are 2-room Flexi or 3-room flats in the BTO project.
This will replace the current Multi-Generation Priority Scheme, which prioritises married couples and parents who live near each other in the same BTO project. More flats for second-tier families
In their statement on Sunday, HDB also provided more details on the additional allocation of BTO flats for second-timer families, as earlier announced in March.
Second-timer families will have an increased allocation quota of 3-room and larger BTO flats by five percentage points, said HDB. This is to support their upgrading aspirations or "right-sizing plans", they said.
The proportion of BTO flats set aside for second-timer families will now be:
• Up to 20 per cent (from up to 15 per cent currently) of 3-room Standard flats;
• Up to 10 per cent (from up to 5 per cent currently) of 3-room Plus and Prime flats, and 4-room and larger Standard, Plus and Prime flats
HDB added that at least 80 to 90 per cent of 3-room and larger flats will continue to be set aside for first-timer families. Increase in Fresh Start Housing Grant
Other enhancements that will take effect from the July 2025 sales exercises include the Deferred Income Assessment (DIA) scheme and the Fresh Start Housing Grant for eligible second-timer families
The DIA scheme allows eligible couples to apply for a new flat first and defer their income assessment for the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant (EHG) and an HDB housing loan until nearer to key collection.
The enhanced scheme will mean that only one of the two parties will have to be studying or serving National Service where previously both parties have to meet this requirement.
In addition, the Fresh Start Housing Grant will be increased from $50,000 to $75,000 to support more second-timer public rental households with children to own a flat.
Eligible ST families can use the increased grant to buy a new 2-room Flexi or 3-room Standard BTO, or SBF flat, on a shorter lease, said HDB.
HDB will offer over 10,000 new flats in the July sales exercise. Over half of these, or 5,500 flats, will be Build-To-Order (BTO) units, elaborated Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat in a Facebook post on July 16.
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