REQUESTS FOR HOUSING ASSISTANCE RECEIVED BY HDB AND OUTCOME

Ms He Ting Ru asked the Minister for National Development (a) for each quarter in the last three years, how many cases for housing assistance have been received by HDB as broken down into requests for assistance on allocation of HDB units for (i) ownership and (ii) rental respectively; and (b) what is the success rate of these requests.

Mr Desmond Lee: In view of the highly-subsidised nature of new public housing flats, HDB conducts public sales exercises, that is, Build-To-Order (BTO) and Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises and open booking – for their sale so that all eligible home seekers can have a fair chance to apply for them. Similarly, to ensure fair allocation of highly-subsidised public rental flats to low-income households who have no other housing options, approved applicants will join a queue before they are invited to select a flat.

Nevertheless, HDB recognises that some applicants may face extenuating circumstances and require special assistance to meet their urgent housing needs. From January 2020 to June 2022, HDB received about 22,600 and 6,800 requests for priority allocation of a new flat and public rental flat respectively. Each of these appeals was assessed on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration factors, such as whether the applicants are facing extenuating circumstances and whether they have other suitable housing options available. The number of appeals received and approved in each year are shown in Tables 1 and 2.