estimates
HDB to Launch Over 25,000 New Flats in 2025
Minister for National Development Desmond Lee has announced that the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will be launching over 25,000 new flats in 2025. This announcement was made in a joint press release by HDB and the Ministry of National Development (MND) on January 16.
The launch will include about 19,600 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats across three sales exercises and more than 5,500 Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) in one SBF sale exercise. The units will be a mix of Standard, Plus, and Prime BTO flats under the new classification framework.
In the February BTO launch, approximately 5,000 flats will be offered in Kallang/Whampoa, Queenstown, Woodlands, and Yishun. Besides this, HDB will also conduct its largest-ever Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercise next month, offering over 5,500 flats across various estates. About 40% of the flats in the SBF exercise are already completed, while the rest are at different stages of construction and are expected to be completed between 2025 and 2028.
Overall, more than 10,000 new flats will be available under the February BTO and SBF exercises.
Over the past four years, from 2021 to 2024, HDB has already launched about 82,700 BTO flats. With a planned pipeline of 19,600 BTO flats in 2025, HDB is on track to launch around 102,300 BTO flats, which exceeds its commitment of 100,000 units over five years.
The increase in BTO supply has led to a decrease in application rates, with the average first-time homebuyer application rate for BTO flats across all flat types dropping from 3.7 in 2019 to 2.1 in 2024. For three-room and larger flats, the average first-timer application rate in 2024 was 2.2, down from 4.0 in 2019.
Minister Lee has assured that HDB will continue to release a steady pipeline of flats to meet housing demand in the next few years. Over 50,000 more flats will be launched between 2025 and 2027, bringing the total to about 130,000 flats from 2021 to 2027.
About 3,800 of the 19,600 new flats, or one-fifth of the BTO flats slated for launch in 2025, will be Shorter Waiting Time (SWT) flats with an expected waiting time of less than three years. This is an increase from the 2,876 SWT flats offered in 2024 and more than the committed annual supply of 2,000 to 3,000 SWT flats.
Huttons Asia’s Senior Director of Data Analytics Lee Sze Teck believes that the SWT flats will provide more options for buyers and may attract some demand away from the resale market. He also estimates that in 2025, about 7,000 HDB flats will reach their five-year minimum occupation period (MOP), making it the lowest supply of resale flats since 2015. This larger flat supply and SWT flats will address the shortfall in MOP flats.
According to Huttons’ Lee, HDB resale flat transactions in 2025 are estimated to be between 26,000 and 28,000, lower than the 28,876 units recorded last year. As a result, 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.
The purchase of a Singapore Condo offers numerous advantages, with one of the most significant being the potential for capital appreciation. Thanks to its strategic position as a global financial center and its robust economic growth, Singapore boasts a constant demand for real estate. As a result, property prices in the country have consistently shown an upward trend, particularly in prime locations where condos have experienced significant appreciation. Savvy investors who enter the market at the opportune moment and hold onto their properties for the long haul can reap substantial profits from capital gains.