HDB resale prices will stabilise as more flats enter market

The Housing Board resale market will start to stabilise as a greater supply of such flats enter the market over the next few years and existing cooling measures continue to take effect, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said.

Citing a supply-demand imbalance as the reason for high resale flat prices, Mr Lee pointed out that the Covid-19 pandemic had severely impacted construction of new flats and also caused demand to spike because people were concerned about housing delays.

High resale prices have caused concern among Singaporeans over the affordability of public housing. These concerns were raised by Mr Xie Yao Quan (Jurong GRC) and Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied GRC) during the debate on the Ministry of National Development's budget on March 5.

Addressing these anxieties in Parliament, Mr Lee said there will be a significant jump in the number of new flats reaching their minimum occupation period (MOP), from 8,000 in 2025 to 13,500 in 2026.

The number of flats meeting their MOP will steadily increase before hitting 19,500 in 2028, added Mr Lee.

Thus, "the supply tightness should start to recover next year", he said.

Taken together with cooling measures to curb prices, which will also continue to "work their way through the market", the HDB resale market will stabilise, he said.

The MOP is the minimum amount of time that owners of new flats must live in their unit before they can sell it on the open market.

Prices of HDB resale flats grew 9.7 per cent in 2024. A report released by property firm OrangeTee Group on Feb 11 also predicted that prices would have risen for 23 consecutive quarters by the end of 2025.