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In a press release jointly issued by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and the Ministry of National Development (MND) on January 16, Minister for National Development Desmond Lee announced that over 25,000 new flats will be launched by HDB in 2025.
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This launch will include approximately 19,600 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats in three sales exercises, as well as more than 5,500 Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) in one SBF sale exercise. The new flats will be classified under the new framework as Standard, Plus, and Prime BTO flats.
The upcoming BTO launch in February will offer around 5,000 flats in Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown, Woodlands, and Yishun. The HDB will also conduct its largest-ever SBF exercise next month, offering more than 5,500 flats in various estates. About 40% of these flats are already completed, while the rest are expected to be completed between 2025 and 2028.
Overall, more than 10,000 new flats will be made available in these February BTO and SBF exercises. In the past four years, from 2021 to 2024, HDB has launched approximately 82,700 BTO flats. With a planned pipeline of 19,600 BTO flats in 2025, HDB is set to exceed its commitment of 100,000 units over five years.
Minister Lee noted that the increase in BTO supply has resulted in a drop in application rates. In 2024, the average application rate for BTO flats among first-time homebuyers across all flat types was 2.1, compared to the pre-pandemic rate of 3.7 in 2019. For three-room and larger flats, the average first-timer application rate last year was 2.2, down from 4.0 in 2019.
HDB will continue to release a steady pipeline of flats to meet housing demand in the coming years, said Minister Lee. Over 50,000 flats are expected to be launched between 2025 and 2027, bringing the total to about 130,000 flats from 2021 to 2027.
In 2025, about 3,800 of the 19,600 new flats will be Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) flats with a waiting time of less than three years. This is a significant increase from the 2,876 SWT flats offered in 2024 and exceeds the committed annual supply of 2,000 to 3,000 SWT flats.
According to senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia, Lee Sze Teck, the SWT flats will provide more options for buyers and may also attract some demand away from the resale market.
In 2025, an estimated 7,000 HDB flats will reach their five-year minimum occupation period (MOP), making it the lowest supply of such resale flats since 2015. With HDB assuring buyers that they will push out more BTO and SBF flats to meet demand, this will offer more choices for buyers and stabilize the resale market, said Lee.
He also estimated that HDB resale flat transactions in 2025 will range between 26,000 and 28,000, which is lower than the 28,876 units recorded in 2024. Resale flat prices are expected to grow at a slower pace of 5% to 8% this year, compared to the 9.6% increase reflected in HDB’s flash estimate for 2024.