Over the past three years, nearly 50,000 local families have received the $1.56 billion Enhanced CPF Housing Grant to purchase their first HDB flats through pre-emption projects or the resale market.

The HDB said in a statement that the Enhanced CPF Housing Grant was launched in September 2019 to assist low- and middle-income families to purchase their first HDB flats. As of December last year, a total of 49,500 households have benefited from the scheme.

Of these, more than one-third received the allowance last year. About 40 per cent (43 per cent) of the beneficiaries used the subsidy to buy a resale HDB flat.

The statement said that the amount of subsidy paid out by the authorities has increased year on year, from $454 million in 2020 to $564 million last year, an increase of about 24 per cent. This is because more homebuyers are eligible to apply.

In addition, most homebuyers will only need to use up to 25% of their monthly income to pay for their HDB loans, with the help of the Additional Home Purchase Allowance and market concessions. This means that they can use their CPF to pay for their mortgage with little or no cash required.