New National Development Minister to prioritise HDB flat affordability, supply

SINGAPORE - The affordability of Housing Board resale flats is a key priority for the Government, said National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat.

“This is an important area for my ministry and me. We want to see how we can help to address this concern at the heart of it,” he told reporters on May 28, five days after assuming the national development portfolio.

Mr Chee attributed higher resale flat prices to the Covid-19 pandemic, which slowed the construction of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats and drove some home buyers to the resale market.

Resale prices are expected to moderate in the years ahead as more flats reach their minimum occupation period (MOP) from 2026, he said. About 13,500 flats will reach their MOP in 2026, up from 8,000 in 2025. In 2028, this will rise to 19,500 flats.

From October 2024, a Standard BTO flat comes with a five-year MOP, during which the owners must reside physically in the unit before it can be resold. Plus and Prime flats have a 10-year MOP.

Before this, most BTO flats had a five-year MOP.

Mr Chee, who was

sworn in as Minister for National Development

on May 23, was speaking to the media during a visit to the Toa Payoh Ridge BTO project in his Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC.

Home owners at the 920-unit project in Lorong 1 Toa Payoh, which was launched for sale in February 2020, started collecting the keys to their flats last week.

Mr Chee said his ministry will continue to have a strong supply of new BTO flats, building on the work of former national development minister Desmond Lee.

For instance, HDB had exceeded its

target of launching 100,000 BTO flats

from 2021 to 2025.

HDB is also on track to deliver the keys to 19,000 households in 2025, with 7,000 households having collected the keys to their homes to date, he added.

Mr Chee, who was transport minister, said he also hopes to improve the experience of residents who move into new BTO projects – including developments located a distance from the town centre or amenities.

He said he has asked Senior Minister of State for National Development and Transport Sun Xueling to look into improving transport connectivity for these residents as part of her work in both her portfolios.

Another area he intends to prioritise is the sprucing up of older HDB estates so that they are “good homes for residents of all ages”.

He pointed to the Remaking Our Heartland programme, which aims to renew older estates to make neighbourhoods more sustainable and vibrant, as well as the Silver Upgrading Programme, which provides senior-friendly improvements to older precincts that had undergone upgrading in the past.

These efforts require a “dedicated focus” by various ministries that have to work closely together, he added.

Asked about the HDB lease decay issue and the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers), Mr Chee said: “This is something we will study carefully and, at an appropriate time, we will share more details.”

Lease decay is the erosion of a flat’s value as the end of its 99-year lease approaches.

The proposed solution, Vers, which has yet to be rolled out, will allow owners of flats aged 70 years and older to vote for the Government to buy back their homes before their leases run out.

On rising resale flat prices and

million-dollar flat transactions,

Mr Chee said one of the ways to address this is to increase the supply of BTO flats, and to give the market time to adjust to the higher supply of flats after they reach their MOP from 2026.

HDB resale prices grew 1.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2025 – the slowest growth recorded since the fourth quarter of 2023 at 1.1 per cent.

But million-dollar flats reached a record monthly high in April, with 141 resale flats changing hands for at least $1 million each, according to data from real estate portals Singapore Real Estate Exchange and 99.co.

Mr Chee said the cooling measure introduced in September 2022, which imposed a

15-month wait-out period on private property downgraders who want to buy a resale flat,

is not meant to be permanent.

“I hope that when the situation improves… we are able to consider reviewing or even removing this restriction,” he said.

Since the measure kicked in, the proportion of private property downgraders paying high prices for HDB flats has come down.

From Jan 1 to Sept 29 in 2022, this group made up about 34 per cent of people who bought million-dollar flats. After the wait-out period was implemented, the proportion dropped to 12 per cent between January and November in 2024, Mr Lee said in January.

Mr Chee was also asked for his thoughts on his switch from the Transport Ministry to the Ministry of National Development (MND).

“Indeed, both transport and MND are hot portfolios,” he said, noting that there are similarities between the two ministries.

“They both require long-term planning and they both require us to work closely with the tripartite partners in our industry and also the unions,” he added. The tripartite partners are the Government, unions and employers.

Mr Chee said he intends to review the ministry’s rules and processes to make them “business-friendly, pro-enterprise”, and seek out processes that can be streamlined to achieve time and cost savings for businesses and citizens.

He also said he will engage industry partners for feedback on areas of improvement.