Nearly 950 families in rental flats bought HDB homes in 2023
About 8,300 families in public rental flats became owners of Housing Board flats over the past decade from 2014 to 2023.
In 2023, nearly 950 families who lived in rental flats bought homes, the highest since the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, HDB said on Feb 8.
This is up from more than 700 households in 2022.
When contacted, the public housing agency did not provide a breakdown of figures for the previous years, but in 2022, it said that about 4,500 families in public rental flats had become flat owners from 2017 to 2021.
Of the 950 families who became home owners in 2023, four in five bought a flat from HDB and the rest went for resale units.
About two-thirds received grants for first-time home buyers, such as the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant of up to $80,000.
About 80 of the 950 rental households tapped the Step-Up Housing Grant, which gives second-timer families or those who had bought a subsidised flat a $15,000 grant to buy two- or three-room new or resale flats in non-mature estates.
As at December 2023, another 2,100 rental households had booked new HDB flats, which are still being built, HDB said.
At present, about 50,000 households are living in public rental flats.
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