The November sales exercise drew 35,603 hopeful buyers competing for just 7,964 flats across the island. New income caps of $16,000 for families and $8,000 for singles contributed to high oversubscription in well-connected estates like Toa Payoh and Tengah. Conversely, peripheral developments struggled to attract strong interest despite significantly faster completion times. Demand for specialized senior housing also rebounded, buoyed by relaxed age qualifications and reduced service charges.
Key points
Expanded income eligibility ceilings for singles and families notably widened the pool of…: Expanded income eligibility ceilings for singles and families notably widened the pool of eligible applicants across multiple estates.
Prime location and transport accessibility continued to heavily outweigh shorter construc…: Prime location and transport accessibility continued to heavily outweigh shorter construction timelines for prospective flat buyers.
Adjusted entry rules and cheaper fees successfully revived buyer participation in the sen…: Adjusted entry rules and cheaper fees successfully revived buyer participation in the senior-targeted Community Care Apartments.
Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1
SINGAPORE - Four-room flats in Toa Payoh and Tengah were the most sought-after among first-time home buyers in HDB’s latest Build-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise, where application rates climbed to the highest since August 2022.
This comes as higher income ceilings of $16,000 for families and $8,000 for singles took effect from this launch, which opened for applications on Nov 4.
As at 5pm on Nov 11, there were a total of 35,603 applicants for the 7,964 BTO flats, translating to a rate of 4.5 applicants for each flat.
Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at real estate agency Huttons Asia, said this was the highest BTO application rate since August 2022, when the rate was 7.8.
It is also the highest number of applications for a BTO launch since October 2024, when there were 35,678 flat applicants.
There were about 22,600 applicants in the last BTO sales exercise in June, and about 14,000 for the one in February.
Property analysts attributed the higher demand to the higher income ceiling, as well as projects being launched in popular locations…
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