Needy families get S$20,000 grant to buy flats

Needy families get S$20,000 grant to buy flats

By Angela Lim – March 4th, 2011



Mr Mah Bow Tan explained subsidies under the Special CPF Housing Grant on Thursday (Yahoo! Photo).

Low-income families can now receive a new government grant of up to S$20,000 to help them purchase their first Housing Development Board (HDB) flat.

This is in addition to the existing grant of S$40,000, which brings the total amount of subsidies for a new home to S$60,000.

A new two-room built-to-order HDB flat costs between S$80,000 to S$120,000.

The subsidy, which is part of the new Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG), was announced by National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan in Parliament on Thursday. This means a lower-income family can get between half and three-quarters of the flat’s price covered by government grants.

The subsidy can mean even more cash in hand for those with lower incomes. Instead of paying to rent a flat, they will be able to repay their housing loans with their Central Provident Fund (CPF) contributions.

Under the new scheme, Mr Mah announced that flat buyers with household incomes not exceeding S$2,250 will be given between S$5,000 and S$20,000. Those earning less than S$1,500 will receive the full S$20,000.

These families are also eligible for the Additional Housing Grant of S$40,000.

According to the Ministry of National Development (MND), the new SHG can be used to buy only two- and three-room standard flats in non-mature estates like Punggol and Sengkang.

Families earning S$1,500 and below will only be allowed to purchase two-room flats.

Mr Mah said he hoped the scheme would aid low-income families now renting flats from the HDB get started on the road to owning their homes instead.

He explained this is why the HDB designed the scheme so the S$1,500 income ceiling for the maximum S$20,000 grant coincides with the S$1,500 income ceiling for rental flat applicants.

Families benefiting from the scheme include people like cleaner Rosli Nodin, 43, who has lived in a one-room rental flat in Bukit Merah with his wife and two children since 1996.

The family’s sole breadwinner, Mr Rosli earns S$1,000 a month and pays S$110 in rent. The new grant means Mr Rosli needs only to take a loan of up to S$40,000 to afford a S$100,000 two-room BTO flat.

His CPF contributions will completely cover the monthly instalments.

“We can use the money we save from rental for the household expenses, or save it for the children to go to school,” his wife, Madam Saribanon Senin, 37, told The Straits Times.

“It’s a lot of money, as we have had to pay rent every month for so many years. Now we can save it up.”

The new scheme was implemented in response to concerns raised during the debate on the National Development Ministry’s budget. Several MPs asked about help for needy families living in public rental flats.

Mr Teo Ser Luck, representing Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, was among those who related experiences with residents who had approached him with their housing troubles.

Dr Ahmad Mohd Magad (Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC) was also among those who wanted the waiting time for rental flats reduced.

In response, Mr Mah said the HDB had ramped up the supply of rental flats so that 50,000 would be ready by next year. Eligibility rules for rental flats have also been tightened.

This cuts the waiting time from 21 months in 2008 to eight months this year.

Describing HDB rental flats as a public safety net, Mr Mah said the high demand — the HDB received appeals from 7,000 people last year — meant that the government had to focus on truly needy families.

“The housing safety net would collapse if it had to support all who sought subsidised rental housing,” he explained.

An appeals committee, led by Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Mohamad Maliki Osman and a panel of MPs, had been set up to review requests from families on a case-by-case basis for this purpose.

Mr Mah stressed that the government’s policy was still to promote home ownership over rentals.

“Rental is consumption, with no returns. Buying a home is a way for people to build up their assets and share in the nation’s growth,” he said.

Dr Maliki also presented the findings from the MND-MCYS (Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports) workgroup on assistance for vulnerable families yesterday.

He proposed that inter-agency collaboration be improved to resolve family problems.

For instance, the HDB is working with the Subordinate Courts to address the post-divorce housing needs of parents who gain custody of their young children.

He also recommended that the tenancy period and rent structure for families living in rental flats be made more flexible, so they can continue living in rental flats till their permanent homes are ready.