Property
HDB Dangles Monetary Goodies and Imposes Restrictions
By Property Buyer  •  August 31, 2013
The HDB landscape is swept with a sea of changes today. Broadly regulation changes are aimed at lending a hand to those in the lower- and mid-rung of the financial ladder, promoting a stable property market with prudent mortgages, meeting the needs of a greying population, and protecting HDB flats for Singaporeans. Firstly, the Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG), capped at $20,000, is enhanced to include first-time buyers of 4-room flats, in non-mature estates, purchased from HDB. The income ceiling for the SHG will also be upped from $2,250 to $6,500. Singles have their income limit and grant quantum for SHG set at half of that for family; therefore the eligible maximum income is now raised to $3,250. The goodie extends to lower-income households as well. HDB rolls out a new Step-Up CPF Housing Grant of $15,000 to give a leg-up to families living in 2-room flats in non-mature estates upgrading to 3-room flats in the non-mature estates. Recognising the importance of familial support for older folks, HDB is improving on the existing Multi-Generation Priority Scheme (MGPS) to allow parents to purchase not just Studio Apartment (SA) or a 2-room flat in the same precinct as their married child living separately. From the September BTO exercise onward, the elder parents may apply for 3-room flats as well under MGPS. To encourage multi-generational living, a new type of HDB flat will be introduced in the September BTO exercise. Three-Generation (3Gen) flats will have four-bedroom configuration with three bathrooms (two en-suites) within a 115 sq m (1, 237.86 sq ft) space. Applicants must, of course, form a family nucleus making up of at least a married/courting couple and their parent(s). In line with the Government effort to foster financial prudence. The duration cap for HDB housing loans is reduced from 30 years to 25 years, while loans for HDB flats by financial institutions go down from 35 years to 30 years. The Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) limit is also reduced from 35% to 30% of the borrower’s gross monthly income. Finally Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) households will now have to wait three years after obtaining PR status before they can buy a resale HDB flat. Potential HDB home buyers fretting about the new mortgage rules can turn to the expert mortgage brokers at iCompareLoan.com for FREE home loan consultancy.
About Property Buyer http://www.PropertyBuyer.com.sg/mortgage We are a research-focused Singapore mortgage consultancy which helps you compare Singapore home loans either for new loans or refinancing. We use loan reports from Singapore’s best loan analysis system (exclusive to us) at http://www.icompareloan.com/consultant/ to serve our customers. Our services are completely FREE to you as the banks pay us a referral fee upon loan disbursement. Copyright ® – All articles are the copyright of www.propertybuyer.com.sg and CoreConcept Systems Pte Ltd and the company reserves full rights to use, reuse in any form or in any media with or without attributing authors or supplanting the name of one author with another.
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