HDB to build 4,500 new flats over 6 months to meet demand

SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will offer about 4,500 new flats over the next six months, under its Build-To-Order Scheme, to meet rising demand for public housing.
It also reported good sales for its stock of surplus flats and is aiming to bring the number down to 2,200 units by year's end, as revealed in the latest HDB annual report on Wednesday.
In the last financial year, HDB received 8,455 bookings for new flats – 7 percent more than the previous year.
Between January and September this year, HDB has offered 2,700 new flats under its Build-To-Order exercises.
Demand looks so good that HDB said it would roll out 4,500 flats, including a small number of five-room flats, in the next six months.
Tay Kim Poh, CEO of HDB, said: "The main focus would still be largely in Punggol and Sengkang. For Punggol, this is part of our plans to build up the catchment so that we can provide more facilities. In Sengkang, there is also land available, and these two towns happen to be very popular towns with flat buyers. In addition to that, we will also be looking at other estates where we have run out of unsold flats."
Three new sites will also be tendered for HDB's Design, Build & Sell Scheme, yielding a further 1,500 units.
Industry players said demand for HDB flats has risen over the last six to nine months, in part due to the rosy economic outlook and an increasing confidence in the value of HDB flats through the government's slew of estate upgrading programmes.
HDB said the take-up rate for new flats has also been strong at 92 percent and 97 percent in its two sales exercises this year.
The good demand, coupled with the conversion of flats into two-room units in Jurong West and Sengkang, has also depleted HDB's stock of unsold flats, which have dropped from over 10,000 units three years ago to just 3,500 now.
And the stock could fall to 2,200 units by the end of the year.
Property agents have welcomed the move to build more new flats, saying increased supply will stabilise prices in the resale market.
David Poh, Director of Strategic Planning & Development, PropNex, said: "I believe the resale prices will continue to climb in the next few quarters for a few reasons. First, demand is going up. Next, the spillover from the en-bloc fever.
"For the fourth quarter this year, it should be in the region of about maybe 5 to 7 percent, and after Q4, it should grow in the region of 3 to 5 percent."
HDB said lower-income families will continue to get help to buy their own homes.
It revealed that its Additional CPF Housing Grant Scheme, introduced last March, has already benefited 3,500 households.
Looking ahead, HDB said upgrading remains a key part of its plans.
It will be extending the lift upgrading programme to 96 percent of HDB blocks that do not have full lift access.
It is also on track to put lifts on every floor for all eligible blocks by 2014.
In its annual report, HDB said it would work on realising the vision to remake the heartlands.
While many of these are long-term plans, it said the changes should come on stream over the next five years, including the rejuvenation of older estates in Queenstown.

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