HDB set to pump up BTO flat supply further to moderate resale prices: Chee Hong Tat

[SINGAPORE] The government is prepared to further ramp up supply of new Build-To-Order (BTO) flats beyond a current target of 55,000 flats between 2025 and 2027, to meet strong demand.

At a media doorstop on Thursday (Jan 8), National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said: “If the demand for new flats remain strong, I’ve asked HDB to go beyond 55,000 flats so that we are able to meet the strong demand with a robust supply.”

Having a strong supply will make BTO flats more accessible and will help to moderate resale flat prices, as some demand will be diverted from the secondary market, he added.

The Housing & Development Board (HDB) resale market booked its fourth straight quarter of slower price growth in Q4, following a 0.4 per cent rise in Q3. Year on year, the official resale price index change was also lower than the 2.6 per cent recorded for the same period in 2024.

For the whole of 2025, the increase of 2.9 per cent was less than a third of the 9.7 per cent growth in the year before. It was also the slowest price growth since 2019, when resale prices inched up 0.1 per cent.

With more flats expected to reach their minimum occupation period in 2026, more flat supply will be injected into the secondary market, thus moderating resale flat prices, said Chee.

HDB will launch about 19,600 BTO flats across three sales exercises in February, June and October this year. This is roughly the same supply as last year’s launch of about 19,700 BTO flats.

Among these flats, more than 4,000 will have a waiting time of less than three years, said HDB. The units on offer will include a mix of Standard, Plus and Prime flats in various locations, such as Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah and Tampines.

HDB is on track to offer about 55,000 flats from 2025 to 2027, with 127 projects currently under construction, up from 110 a year ago.

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“With these developments, we hope to make further inroads into improving accessibility and affordability of HDB BTO flats and resale flats,” said Chee, adding that there has been “some initial signs of progress in both areas”.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the application rate for BTO flats was seven times. It has since come down to 1.1 to 1.9 times in 2025.

BTO flats will continue to be priced based on income levels, ensuring that the housing price to income ratio and mortgage servicing ratio can remain affordable for flat buyers, said Chee.

When asked about the BTO income eligibility threshold and 15-month wait-out period for private property owners, he noted that the government is currently monitoring the situation carefully.

“We want to make sure that when we increase the income threshold or when we lower the age for singles, or when we remove the 15-month waiting time, we want to do so at a point (when market conditions are right),” said Chee.

He added that if there is insufficient supply to meet new demand, homebuyers may end up facing longer waiting times. “The strategy is to increase the supply, keep up a robust supply of BTO flats to be able to meet the strong demand.”

In 2025, HDB completed about 19,600 flats across 28 housing projects, with a median wait time of about four years. Among those completed, three – Parc Clover @ Tengah, Hougang Olive and Yishun Boardwalk – were projects with shorter waiting time.

Several projects such as MacPherson Weave and Costa Grove were completed about three months ahead of their original probable completion dates, said HDB, and the final four housing projects in Bidadari – ParkEdge @ Bidadari, ParkView @ Bidadari, Bartley Beacon and Bartley GreenRise – were completed.

This marks the completion of all 12 public housing developments, offering 8,872 homes across the 93-hectare estate since the first projects were launched in 2015, said HDB.

The first BTO projects in Bidadari – Alkaff CourtView, Alkaff Vista and Alkaff LakeView – were launched in November 2015.

To deal with ageing flats, Chee said the government will continue with the neighbourhood renewal programme and silver upgrading programme. The government will also release more details about the next tranche of the Home Improvement Programme when it is ready.

He added the government is also studying carefully the voting threshold for the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme. As for the HIP, he acknowledged the issue faced by the recent exercise whereby some blocks faced challenges in getting the required 75 per cent support. To that end, he said the government will consult the stakeholders on what is a better way to manage this process

On the private housing front, about 12,000 private homes will be launched in 2026, similar to 2025 and about 50 per cent higher than in 2024, he added.

“If demand remains strong, we will be able to release more land through the government land sales programme, and this will be both a combination of the confirmed sites and also the reserved sites. We do have more land that we can release.”