HDB rolls out one-stop portal that lists new flats up for sale

THE Housing and Development Board (HDB) has launched a new portal to make it easier to buy and sell HDB flats.

To be rolled out progressively, the HDB Flat Portal will make it more convenient for homebuyers and sellers to gather information on the purchase or sale of a flat through a single integrated platform, National Development Minister Desmond Lee announced in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

It includes a flat-listing service with information on current and upcoming new HDB flats for buyers to compare their housing options holistically, noted Mr Lee in his Facebook post. He added that HDB is looking to include resale flat listings in subsequent phases.

Other main features of the new HDB Flat Portal include customised financial calculators for buyers to estimate their housing budget and for sellers to estimate their sales proceeds. There is also a one-stop loan listing service for buyers to obtain information on housing loans offered by both HDB and participating financial institutions.

The launch comes after a series of engagement sessions with industry players.

The HDB Flat Portal marks the second phase of the HDB Resale Portal, which was launched in January 2018. According to Mr Lee, the HDB Resale Portal has halved the time needed for resale flat transactions from 16 weeks to around eight weeks, and reduced the number of appointments with HDB from two to one.

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"We will continue to look into ways to further improve the transaction process for HDB homebuyers and sellers," he concluded.

In a separate post on Facebook last Friday, Mr Lee said Singapore's government may have to apply more subsidies to keep future HDB projects in prime locations affordable, on top of those already provided for Build-To-Order flat buyers.

He also highlighted an "issue of fairness" to consider when these additional subsidies add to higher capital gains for buyers of such flats in prime locations.

READ MORE: HDB 'lottery' conundrum: analysts weigh in on ways to mitigate it