SINGAPORE: Buyers who applied for a flat in the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) May Build-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise will get their ballot result in the first week of August, instead of July.
Those who applied for a Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) unit in May will receive their ballot queue number in the last week of August, instead of the end of July.
The delay comes after system issues plagued the BTO and SBF exercises in May, when some potential buyers waited for up to two hours in a virtual waiting room before they could access the HDB flat portal on day one of the launch.
In e-mails sent to some applicants last Thursday and Friday, HDB said it has been processing the flat applications received, including from those who had faced difficulties in applying due to the system glitches during the sales launch and asked for help.
“As a result, we will need more time to check all the flat applications received and conduct the computer ballot,” said HDB in the e-mails seen by The Straits Times.
HDB acknowledged applicants’ anxiety, and said it will do its best to inform them of the ballot results as soon as they are available.
More than 20,000 people applied for BTO flats and more than 17,000 people submitted applications in the SBF exercise.
HDB’s website states that it will notify applicants of their ballot results within two months after applications close, depending on the sales launch, flat supply and other factors.
The May sales exercise closed at 11.59pm on June 8.
Asked if the delay will push back the flat selection period, HDB said bookings will start about four weeks after ballot results are released and take a few months to be completed, as with past exercises.
Applicants had complained about system glitches and long waiting times to enter the HDB sales portal during the May sales launch.
HDB attributed the long wait to three factors – higher application volume due to the combined BTO and SBF launch, popular projects in the mature estates of Bedok and Serangoon, and high traffic as people went to the flat portal to browse the flats on offer.
HDB said it has since reconfigured the virtual waiting room to minimise waiting time for all applicants.
It advised flat buyers to avoid the peak period of a sales launch – usually the first two to three days – as queue numbers are given out via balloting and not on a first come, first served basis.
There were no queues from the fourth to 10th day of the application period in May, HDB noted, adding that it has resolved most of the issues that occurred during the launch and is working on “further enhancements to improve the overall system performance”.
HDB has previously delayed the release of ballot results for a BTO launch – it pushed back the results of the August 2022 sales exercise from September to around mid-October, citing the large number of applicants and the need for more time to do checks.
The May 2023 launch was the first time applicants had to complete a preliminary assessment for the HDB Flat Eligibility (HFE) letter before applying for a flat, but some who did so said they were still unable to apply due to system glitches.
HDB had replaced the HDB Loan Eligibility letter with the HFE to streamline the flat-buying process, so buyers just need to make a single application to find out if they are eligible to buy a new flat, how much in Central Provident Fund housing grants they can use, and the amount of HDB housing loan they qualify for.
Private tutor Kuang Li Wei, 26, who applied for a five-room BTO flat in Bedok in May, said that while the delayed ballot results do not inconvenience her, she finds the wait for a new flat “quite tiring”.
She hopes to get her result for the May sales exercise before the next launch in August, so she has time to contemplate her options.
“I’m expecting the August BTO exercise to be pushed back to the first week of September, so that it will also be fair to the SBF applicants who will get their ballot results in the last week of August,” she said.
Others were more sanguine about the delay. Research assistant Amanda Tan, 26, said she had no expectations when applying for a four-room flat in the popular Serangoon BTO project, so the delay was no issue to her.
“Honestly, there’s no point in being disappointed or frustrated as it won’t change the situation or have the results released earlier. If it comes, it comes,” she said. — The Straits Times/ANN
