Desmond Lee on appeals by home buyers affected by HDB wait-out period

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will assess the appeals of private property owners who face extenuating circumstances in buying resale flats on a case-by-case basis, says National Development Minister Desmond Lee. Speaking in reply to Parliamentary questions on Thursday (Oct 20), he said HDB has received about 650 appeals since the 15-month wait-out period for a resale HDB flat was introduced. He said 220 of these home seekers had obtained an Option to Purchase (OTP) to buy an HDB resale flat before the wait-out period was put in place. For these home seekers, HDB has exercised flexibility and waived the 15-month wait-out period for all of them. A second group of home seekers are those who have not obtained an OTP to buy an HDB resale flat, but who may have committed to sell or have recently sold their existing private property. Mr Lee said HDB will assess these appeals on a case-by-case basis. Mr Lee said the Government will continue to monitor market housing conditions and act decisively but also carefully to ensure the stability of the wider Singapore property market and to keep public housing inclusive, affordable and accessible to Singaporeans. *Audio issues inherent from source