Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB) has observed that there were as many as four interested buyers for each re-offered balance flat available. The HDB gave a comment on August 1 this year about the flats saying that 71 percent were ready for use. An individual can also acquire a unit through the HDB’s BTO (Build-To-Order) program. Comparing BTO and ROF reveals that the Re-offer of Balance Flats is more popular than the BTO. While both forms of housing were availed on August 1, ROF comes from the pooling of unsold flat units from the previous year’s November SBF also known as Sale of Balance Flats.
Nicholas Makes, who heads the research and consultancy of ZACD Group gives a clue that more individuals are willing to take ready flats since the wait is not long. Indeed, this short duration of waiting ameliorates the negativity that the houses held so that they didn’t end up sold. Negative attributes that may make a flat not to be sold include the fact that it is located on lower uncomfortable floors amongst other reasons.
This year’s application rate of 1.7 in which 6654 people scrambled for 3897 new flats is a good sign that the ROF will be a success. The ROF can save an individual $180,000, and as such, it has become an incentive to the applicants. 95 % of the new flats were set aside for first-time family applicants, and the rest were for second-time applicants. The program has favored seniors who are eligible to buy two-room flexi flats flexibly. The exercise will be held twice annually in February and August. With the different forms of house acquisition exercises offered by the HDB, about 17500 units have been sold this year alone. In applying for a home through the ROF program, the applicants are not required to indicate the estate or flat preference.
For more detailed information on both the ROF and BTO programs, have a look at the article below
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/housing/strong-demand-for-re-offered-balance-flats
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