SINGAPORE: The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will increase the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) of non-subsidised flats from three to five years.

It said this will reinforce the message that flats are meant for long-term occupation and dampen demand from those who are not in urgent need of housing.

Buyers of these flats will also be banned from concurrently owning both an HDB flat and a private residential property within the MOP.

Private property owners who buy a resale HDB flat must now dispose of their private residential property within six months from the date of flat purchase.

HDB said this will help ensure buyers purchase flats only when they have the intent of staying in it for long term and ensure equitable treatment for all flat lessees during their MOP.

Ownership of private properties by... HDB lessees will be allowed after the MOP.

The changes will apply to resale applications received by HDB from Monday.

The Prime Minister in his National Day Rally speech on Sunday said more will be done to ensure that HDB flats will remain within reach of first-time buyers.

HDB will ramp up the supply of new flats, Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) flats and Executive Condominiums (ECs) substantially to meet the housing needs of first-time property buyers.

It will be offering more than 16,000 new flats this year.

If demand remains strong, HDB said it's prepared to launch up to 22,000 new flats next year.

Over two years, it will offer more new flats than the total flats of 35,400 in Toa Payoh town today.

In addition, it will release more land for tender in 2010 to yield an estimated supply of 3,000 DBSS flats and 4,000 ECs.

In 2011, HDB will release land sites for another 4,000 DBSS flats and 4,000 ECs, if demand is sustained.

To widen their housing options, HDB will allow first-timer households with monthly income of between S$8,000 and S$10,000 to buy new DBSS flats with a CPF Housing Grant of S$30,000.

Similar to the purchase of ECs, the HDB concessionary loan will not be available for these buyers.

This revision will be applicable to DBSS projects launched for public sale after Monday.

To help households get their new flats faster, HDB has also streamlined the Build-to-Order (BTO) processes to allow flat buyers collect keys to their new homes six months earlier.

Buyers of projects launched in mid-2011 onwards will generally need to wait for two and a half years to collect the keys instead of the current three years.

-CNA/wk