19,600 BTO flats to be launched this year; 2027 supply to increase if demand stays strong

SINGAPORE – About 19,600 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats will be launched in 2026, with next year’s projected supply to increase if demand remains strong.

HDB, which plans to build

55,000 flats between 2025 and 2027

, has been asked to go beyond this target if necessary, said National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat on Jan 8.

A strong supply of new flats will make homes more accessible, and help moderate prices of resale flats by shifting demand away from the resale market, he added.

“For 2026, we will press on with what we have started, which is to build more and build faster,” Mr Chee said. This will also lay the groundwork for the BTO income ceiling and singles eligibility age to be reviewed, he added.

He will also prioritise moves to make Singapore’s operating environment more pro-business, improve productivity and help companies be more efficient.

Mr Chee was speaking to reporters during a visit to ParkEdge @ Bidadari, one of the four final projects to be completed in the estate.

Shortly after taking office in May 2025, Mr Chee had announced that 55,000 BTO flats would be launched between 2025 and 2027 – an increase from the 50,000 announced by his predecessor in January that year.

A robust supply of public housing has since led to some “initial signs” of progress in making flats more accessible and affordable, he said on Jan 8.

Application rates for BTO flats have come down since 2020, when the median rate for three-room and larger flats stood at seven, meaning that there were seven applicants for each flat.

In 2025, this figure came down to 1.1 to 1.9.

Resale price growth also moderated in 2025. Prices went up 0.9 per cent in the second quarter and 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, but remained unchanged in the fourth quarter.

And more flats are expected to

reach their minimum occupation period in 2026

, which means they can be sold on the resale market. This is also expected to moderate resale flat prices.

Mr Chee reiterated that flats have remained affordable, as nine in 10 first-time buyers in 2025 could pay their HDB housing loans using their Central Provident Fund accounts, with little or no cash.

Among the 19,600 new flats to be launched in 2026, over 4,000 will have a shorter wait time of less than three years. In 2027, another 4,000 such flats will be launched, he said.

This year’s crop of BTO flats will be launched over three sales exercises – in February, June and October – in towns such as Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Sembawang, Toa Payoh, Tampines, Woodlands and Yishun, HDB said on Jan 8.

The flats will comprise a mix of Standard, Plus and Prime flats.

Mr Chee said the ministry will continue its review of the BTO income ceiling, age floor for single applicants and the 15-month wait-out period for private home owners who want to downgrade to a resale flat.

Each move would depend on market conditions and may take place at different times, he said.

Should the income threshold be raised and the singles eligibility age lowered, demand will go up, he noted.

But if supply cannot keep pace, the result may be longer waiting times for a flat and fewer successful applicants, he said.

“We will look at the evidence, but I am confident that if the current trends continue, we will be able to make a move on all three issues going forward.”

Mr Chee also addressed a question on the lack of five-room flats being built in Prime and Plus projects.

He said that if more five-room flats are built, the trade-off is having fewer units of other flat types.

But he also empathised with the needs of larger families, saying that he “will see what we can do to build more five-room flats” without reducing supply elsewhere.

This might be done by developing more areas and building more units on a given plot of land through good design, he said.

HDB launched a total of 19,723 BTO flats in 2025. About 19,600 flats across 28 projects were also completed last year, with the median wait time for a flat at about four years.

Of the 28 developments completed, three were shorter waiting-time projects that had waits of less than three years. They were Parc Clover @ Tengah, a 1,124-unit project, Hougang Olive with 390 units, and Yishun Boardwalk with 852 units.

The Tengah and Hougang projects were launched in November 2021, while the Yishun development was

put up for sale in February 2022

.

HDB said there are 127 housing projects under construction at present, up from 110 a year ago.

Completion of HDB projects in Bidadari

HDB also announced on Jan 8 that all public housing projects in the Bidadari estate have been completed, a decade after its first BTO projects were launched.

The last four public housing projects in Bidadari were wrapped up in 2025: ParkEdge @ Bidadari, ParkView @ Bidadari, Bartley Beacon and Bartley GreenRise.

In all, 8,872 flats were constructed across 12 public housing developments in the 93ha estate.

At present, 98 per cent of home buyers – comprising 8,327 of the 8,443 flats booked – have moved into or collected the keys to their homes, HDB said.

Amenities in the town have also been built up to meet residents’ needs – Woodleigh Mall opened in May 2023 while Woodleigh Village Hawker Centre opened in September 2024.

The 13ha Bidadari Park, which is situated at the heart of the estate,

opened in September 2024

. The park has walking trails, play areas and open lawns, as well as Alkaff Lake, which serves as a retention pond to manage the growing threat of flash floods amid climate change.

A heritage walk in the park, which recounts the history of Bidadari through a series of storyboards, will be fully opened in the third quarter of 2026. A memorial garden, which commemorates Bidadari’s history as one of Singapore’s oldest cemeteries, will be opened in the first quarter of 2026.