National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Friday announced in Parliament details of the enhanced Additional CPF Housing Grant Scheme (AHG) to help first-timers buy a home.

The scheme, introduced in March 2006, is an additional grant over and above the regular market subsidy and CPF Housing Grant that new and resale flat buyers enjoy respectively. It offsets the purchase price of a new or resale HDB flat, thereby further reducing the loan a flat buyer needs to take.

The enhancements are:

* Increase in the income ceiling from $4,000 to $5,000. This will increase the coverage of the AHG from 50 per cent to 60 per cent of resident households.

* Increase in maximum grant quantum from $30,000 to $40,000.

* Reduction of the two-year continuous employment condition to one year.

The enhanced AHG will make owning an HDB home within easier reach, especially for the lower-income. For instance, a family with a monthly household income of $1,500 can comfortably own a new two-room HDB flat priced at $90,0001.

With the help of the maximum AHG quantum of $40,000, they only have a monthly mortgage instalment of about $200. This is about 13 per cent of monthly income and can be serviced entirely from monthly CPF contributions.

The increase in amount will also give more help to middle-income families. For instance, a family with a monthly household income of $4,000 will get an AHG of $15,000, an increase of $10,000. They can also get a higher CPF Housing Grant of $40,000 if they stay near their parents.

This revision, to take effect from Feb 6, is expected to benefit an additional 2,700 first-timer HDB buyers yearly, bringing the total benefiting households to about 8,000 a year.

Overall, it will almost double the estimated cost of the scheme to Government to about $150 million per year.