Design, Build and Sell Scheme was introduced in 2005, giving private developers freedom to build and sell public housing in the way they sell condos. Since private developers are hungry for profit, DBSS flats have smaller rooms and abnormal high prices compared with BTO flats despite of same income ceiling ($8.000 per month, $10.000 per month after 2011). DBSS land sales were suspended in 2011.
Pages related to Housing in Singapore will be moved to new website: www.housingmap.sg on 12-13 October 2024.
Build-To-Order was introduced in April 2001, currently BTO sale launches are in February, May, August, November. Future BTO locations are announced 6 months in advance. This table shows BTO names, town, launch date, estimated completion date, number of units breakdown by flat type, selling price ranges, etc.
HDB Resale Price Index DOUBLED from 2007 to 2013, dropped 10% to 2015 then stabilized until 2020 when COVID-19 pandemic triggered another bubble.
The charts show price evolution for each town. Click towns on right side to highlight lines.
– Number of dwelling units by town and flat type, table and chart
– Number of dwelling units by town and year 1990-present, table and chart
– Number of dwelling units by flat type and year 1990-present, table and chart
– Statistics for calculation of the average flat size along history
– HDB achievements since 1960
– Resale market statistics
Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme was introduced in 1995. 71 sites were selected by 2007 and another 11 sites in 2008-2012. This page shows list of SERS sites and (personal prediction) future SERS sites. On 19 August 2018 HDB announced that only 5% of total sold flats are eligible for SERS, of which 4% have been selected already. For all other flats there will be VERS (Voluntary En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme) that will start in ~20 years (probably in 2036 when first leases reach 70 years old).
Ministry of National Development, Khaw Boon Wan, said in 2012 that HDB flats have been the same size for last 15 years and are not shrinking. This article has been copied on numerous blogs.
As you can see in the following chat, the 4-room flats leased in 2000 were 90 sqm and 4-room flats launched in 2012 (TOP 2016) are the same 90 sqm, so he is not lying, instead he is masking the shrinking that occurred 15-20 years ago, also he does not take in consideration that the 4-room flat was the smallest flat type in 2000, while today it is the average flat type.
Properties in Singapore are by two types: freehold and leasehold. Leasehold in case of private residential buildings is 999 years, 99 years (or 103 years with 4 years construction time), or in rare cases, 60 years. Other types of buildings can have shorter leases. All HDB flats except Studio Apartments are leased on 99 years.
HDB InfoWeb Appliation Status page does provide the application rate for last BTO project and SBF, breakdown by flat type. I compiled an Excel table with a summary of application rate for every BTO and SBF launch from 2010 to present and offer it for free download together with HTML pages.
I transcribed the tables in Annual Reports 1990-2017 into Excel (New Towns under development and Dwelling units under management by town and flat type). I can go further and do the same for 1960-1989 tables, also transcribe in Word all the Annual Reports if there is sufficient demand.
On 1 April 2009, HDB improved its Resale Flat Prices e-service, now showing transactions for last 1 year instead of last 3 months, also added flat model beside floor area. I copied the listings for 1 year (April 2008 – March 2009) in Microsoft Excel, which were displaying 20 per page. I spent about 10 days at 5 hours per day. I did this for purpose of personal analysis, for example estimate average apartment size nationwide and per town, and showing the results of analysis in HDB Statistics page. Few months later HDB showed all transactions in a scroll-able list rather than 20 pages, allowing me to copy transactions much faster, so started to update my database once per year.
Biggest HDB town, biggest HDB block, smallest HDB block, longest HDB block, most segmented HDB, private HDB blocks, most expensive HDB flats, new vertical numbering system (1983), etc.
Sale of Balance Flats, comprising unsold leftover flats from past BTO launches, surplus flats from SERS projects, old repurchased flats (including flats from some divorced or fiance couples), are done “when HDB accumulate sufficient flats“, usually twice per year, but this is NOT A RULE. Since 2010 the SBF exercise is done same day with a BTO launch.
Map of HDB blocks colored by construction year is one of most popular projects I made on this website, but some people asked me to recolor map by number of floors.
This page shows floor plans of ~100 most common HDB flat types and most representative layouts, from 1930s SIT flats to present BTO flats.
Ang Mo Kio, Bedok, Bishan, Bukit Batok, Bukit Merah, Bukit Panjang, Bukit Timah, Central Area, Choa Chu Kang, Clementi, Geylang, Hougang, Jurong East, Jurong West, Kallang/Whampoa, Marine Parade, Pasir Ris, Punggol, Queenstown, Sembawang, Sengkang, Serangoon, Tampines, Tengah, Toa Payoh, Woodlands, Yishun.