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Published October 22, 2010

HDB to roll out more BTO flats in 2011

It plans to launch up to 22,000 BTO flats in 2011 if strong demand persists

By EMILYN YAP


THE Housing and Development Board (HDB) will continue to roll out new flats through the build-to-order (BTO) programme every month even as the application rates for recent launches slide.

HDB CEO Cheong Koon Hean said this at a briefing on the board's FY09/10 annual report on Wednesday, which showed resale transactions between April 2009 and March this year reaching a seven-year high.

'We are still committed to launch every month, but we will monitor carefully. The programme can be adjusted,' Mrs Cheong said.

HDB ramped up its BTO programme from late last year to cater to rising demand for flats.

It was common to see launches in the early months of this year attract six to seven applications per unit offered.

But application rates have dropped after the government introduced measures to cool the property market in August.

Last month, a BTO exercise at Yishun attracted around 2.4 applications for every flat offered. Another exercise this month at Woodlands saw a rate of 2.2 applications.

'It is probably too early to really tell what is the impact of the measures,' Mrs Cheong said.

In any case, the BTO programme allows HDB to gauge demand for flats and adjust supply accordingly, she stressed.

This calendar year, HDB will be launching about 16,000 BTO flats - the highest number offered in any calendar year since it adopted the BTO system in 2002. Last year, it released 9,000 BTO flats.

HDB plans to launch up to 22,000 BTO flats in the next calendar year if strong demand persists.

There was robust appetite not just for new flats, but also for resale flats.

HDB revealed in its annual report that there were 39,320 resale applications in FY09/10. This is the highest number seen since FY02/03, it told BT.

HDB also said that the average number of resale transactions in recent years has been fairly constant at about 30,000. In FY08/09, it received 28,551 applications.

For FY09/10, HDB incurred a deficit of $907 million, less than the deficit of $2.12 billion a year ago.

The improvement was driven by a sharp drop in net operating expenditure, to $3.94 billion from $5.15 billion.

HDB's residential ancillary functions arm narrowed its deficit to $64 million from $120 million.

This was largely due to an increase in season parking income and licence fees received for car parks outsourced to external service providers.

HDB said that season parking income rose because there were higher season ticket sales from a larger car population.

It also outsourced more car parks to private operators, which generated higher licence fees.