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HDB projects to be announced 6 months in advance

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They will be announced 6 months ahead, HDB will cut waiting time for results

Would-be home owners will soon get more information to plan their purchases, with the Housing Board announcing new projects six months in advance instead of three.

The HDB will also shorten the waiting time for applicants to receive their ballot results by half, from six weeks to three.

Both changes will apply from the May sales exercise.

Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong, announcing the measures yesterday, said these are part of a long-term plan to keep housing affordable and accessible.

He also reaffirmed his ministry's commitment to providing affordable housing options for different types of flat buyers.

He spelt out a range of measures, such as broadening the scope of a grant to help lower-income families buy bigger homes and introducing more flexibility to use Central Provident Fund (CPF) monies to buy older flats in May, so that elderly home owners in such homes can right-size more easily.

Meanwhile, the expanded Build-to-Order announcement schedule means interested home buyers can see where the upcoming projects are and how many flats will be released, and plan accordingly.

With the change, unsuccessful applicants do not have to wait more than a month to make new plans.

Mr Wong emphasised that HDB flats remain affordable.

"From time to time, we hear comments where people say that we should not compare to other cities, and the price of our HDB flats today compared with that in the 1970s or 1980s is much more expensive," Mr Wong said.

"But remember, incomes have also risen considerably over this period. We really have to look at a broader range of affordability indicators, not just the headline price."

He noted that first-time buyers in non-mature flats fork out less than 25 per cent of their incomes on mortgage - a far cry from almost 50 per cent in the 1970s, and lower than the international standard of 30 to 35 per cent.

"We are keeping well below that," he said, adding that many first-timers service their loans entirely with CPF monies, or zero cash.

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