The Government has lifted the 15-month wait-out period for private home owners to purchase HDB resale flats immediately amid a decline in the latter prices, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said.
Announcing this on July 28, Mr Chee said market conditions have improved and the Government has assessed that the cooling measure has met its purpose.
He noted that HDB resale prices have moderated significantly from a high of 10.4 per cent in 2022 to 2.9 per cent in 2025. HDB resale prices declined for the second consecutive quarter in the second quarter of 2026, after dipping for the first time in close to seven years in the first quarter of the year.
“With this change, private property owners of all ages will no longer face a wait-out period to buy a non-subsidised HDB resale flat of any size,” Mr Chee said in a speech at the 11th Singapore Economic Review Conference.
Introduced in September 2022, the 15-month wait-out period was aimed at curbing demand from cash-rich private home owners looking to buy a non-subsidised resale Housing Board flat.
Shortly after taking over as National Development Minister in May 2025, Mr Chee said the measure was not meant to be permanent, and that it would be lifted “when the situation improves”.
He later said in June that year that private property owners may not need to wait till 2027 or 2028 for a review of the wait-out requirement, as a strong continued supply of new BTO flats and resale units would moderate resale prices.
As at March 31, 2025, HDB received and processed about 5,500 appeals for a waiver of the requirement, of which about a quarter were approved.
ABSD Deadline extended
The Minister also announced that the government will extend a critical sales timeline for developers of large en bloc sites to up to seven years, a move expected to give a boost to collective sale land deals often stalled by viability concerns.
Mr Chee announced that starting tomorrow, large en bloc redevelopments of at least 700 units will have their critical sales deadline extended by one year, from the previous six months, giving them six years to complete construction and sell all units.
Developers of mega en bloc projects of over 1,400 units will have the deadline extended by two years, bringing the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) remission timeline to seven years. The Straits Times and The Business Times
