Published Date: 19 Feb 2018
Minister for Finance, Mr Heng Swee Keat, announced in the Budget Statement in Parliament today that the Government will enhance the Proximity Housing Grant (PHG) to encourage married couples, singles, and their parents to live closer together, in the same flat or nearby, for stronger family support.
2 The PHG complements other measures to help Singaporeans buy an HDB flat to live with or near their parents or married child, such as the Married Child Priority Scheme, Multi-Generation Priority Scheme, Senior Priority Scheme and Three-Generation (3Gen) flats.
Enhancements to the Proximity Housing Grant
3 Currently, Singaporean citizen families enjoy a PHG of $20,000 when they buy a resale flat to live with or near their parents or married children. Eligible singles will also enjoy a PHG of $10,000 if they buy a resale flat to live with their parents.
4 From today, the PHG will be enhanced to benefit more Singaporean families.
Increase in PHG for Extended Families to Live Together
5 To further encourage extended families to live together in the same flat for better care and support, families who buy a resale flat to live with their parents or children will now enjoy a higher-tier PHG of $30,000, up from $20,000 previously. Those buying a resale flat to live near their parents or children will continue to receive a PHG of $20,000.
Enhancement of PHG for Singles
6 Similarly, singles aged 35 years and above who buy a resale flat to live with their parents will receive the higher-tier PHG of $15,000, up from $10,000 previously.
7 To encourage singles who are buying their own homes to live near their parents for mutual care and support, they will now be able to enjoy a new PHG of $10,000.
Simplified Proximity Condition
8 The proximity condition for determining what is considered as “near” will be simplified. Previously, it was defined as within 2 km or the same town. HDB will revise this to just “within 4 km”. This revision will give home buyers more options when they buy a resale flat to live near their parents or children, including in nearby towns.
9 The revised proximity condition of 4 km will also apply to the Married Child Priority Scheme (MCPS) and Senior Priority Scheme (SPS) for new flats with effect from HDB’s May 2018 Build-To-Order (BTO) and Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercise.
Implementation
10 The enhanced PHG for families and singles is summarised in Table 1.
Table 1:
Enhanced PHG for Married/Single Child and Parents
|
Resale Flat Buyer
|
Proximity Condition Enhancements
|
|
|
To Live With Parents/Child
|
To Live Near Parents/Child
(Within 4km) |
|
|
Families
|
$30,000
|
$20,000
|
|
Singles aged 35 and
above
|
$15,000
|
$10,000
|
11 The enhanced PHG will apply to eligible resale flat applications received on or after 3.30pm, 19 February 2018.
11,000 Households have Benefitted from PHG since August 2015
12 The PHG was introduced in August 2015 to help extended families live closer together for mutual care and support. All Singaporeans are eligible for the PHG once, regardless of a) whether they have enjoyed housing subsidies before; b) their household income; or c) ownership of private property, when they buy a resale flat to live with or near their parents or married child. Private property owners will need to dispose of their private properties within six months of the resale flat purchase. The grant recipients must live with/near each other for at least 5 years.
13 The PHG has benefitted a wide spectrum of Singaporeans, who want to live with or near their parents or children, including a) young couples who wish to live with or near their parents; b) married couples who bought their first flat further away from their parents and now wish to move back closer to their parents; and c) parents who wish to right-size and move closer to their children.
14 As at 31 Dec 2017, close to 11,000 households have benefitted from the PHG, or a total grant amount of about $211 million.
Enquiries
15 For enquiries, the public can call the HDB Sales/Resale Customer Service Line at 1800-866-3066 between 8.00am to 5.00pm, Mondays to Fridays.
Source: HDB