Singles over 35 to get $15,000
CPF grant to buy resale flats
Straits Times
Mar 19, 1998
BY Lim Li Hsien
SINGLE people aged 35 and over will be entitled to a $15,000 CPF grant when they buy resale HDB flats from June 1, but will no longer be allowed to purchase new flats directly from the Housing Board.
Announcing the new policy in Parliament yesterday, National Development Minister Lim Hng Kiang said yesterday that the grant had been pegged at less than half the $40,000 given presently to married couples who are first-time buyers of resale HDB flats.
"Why $15,000? We feel that the singles should not have the same amount of grant as the first-timer couple. In fact, the grant should be less than half; therefore, we have pegged it at $15,000, he said.
"With this grant, we would like singles to purchase flats from the resale market and not add to the HDB queue."
If two or more singles combine to buy the flat they will be entitled to a maximum of $30,000 in subsidies.
On why the government had decided to stop singles from buying new HDB flats under the Joint Singles Scheme (JSS), he said there had been a trend of singles applying jointly with elderly persons without intending to share the flat with them.
He said: "Doing this is an abuse of the system, because the single will bring in another elderly single, a grandaunt or a relative, but there is no intention at all that the two will stay together.
"They will get a new flat and the single will then stay in that flat on her own. So, we are stopping the scheme as of today."
He made the announcement to extend the CPF Housing Grant Scheme to singles following a request by two MPs, Dr Ker Sin Tze (Aljunied GRC) and Mr R. Sinnakaruppan (Kreta Ayer-Tanglin GRC), to allow singles to buy flats directly from the HDB.
Under the new Singles' Grant Scheme, the buyers must not have enjoyed a housing subsidy before, and their combined incomes must not exceed $8000 a month and they must not own or have owned any private residential property within 30 months of the application.
Currently, there are 1800 applicants under the JSS. These will remain on the queue for the flats. But no new applicants will be accepted with immediate effect. Resale flats purchased under the Singles' Grant Scheme are considered direct-purchase flats.
This means the owners must live five years in the flat before selling it and must wait 10 years to buy a new HDB flat if they get married and qualify for one.
Applicants who have submitted their resale application can ask for the grant if the date of completion of the resale is on or after June 1. Members of the public with enquiries can call 1800-273-1441.