At least half of the households in the lowest income quintile paid their monthly mortgage without paying cash, using CPF only, for both pre-owned and resale flats. The median amount of CPF that will be used each month is $800 and $1,100 respectively.
Buyers under the age of 35 with a household income in the lowest quintile receive an average of $48,700 in home purchase allowances when buying a pre-purchased HDB flat.
They received an average allowance of $100,300 when they bought a resale HDB flat. At least half of these families paid their monthly mortgage without paying out of pocket, using only their CPF.
All of these families are first-time buyers who completed their transactions this year. They can apply for the Family Home Purchase Allowance, the Near Home Purchase Allowance, and the Additional Home Purchase Allowance.
Families in the lowest quintile of income can apply for a loan of up to $513,600 from the Housing Development Board for pre-purchase HDB flats and up to $498,000 for resale HDB flats.
The median household income can apply for loans of up to $558,700 and $538,200 from the authority for pre-purchase and resale HDB flats respectively.
The data also shows that after deducting allowances and loans, these low and middle income households have a median balance of zero when purchasing a pre-purchase HDB flat. For resale flats, the median cash balance is $5,000.
At least half of these low- and middle-income households have a zero monthly mortgage payment in cash and only use their CPF to make monthly payments.
For households in the lowest income quintile, the median monthly CPF payments for pre-buy and resale HDB flats are $800 and $1,100 respectively. For the median household, they will have to spend $1,200 and $1,700 per month respectively.
The MP for Bukit Batok asked whether a second-time applicant would be treated as a second-time applicant when applying for another HDB project after the purchase of a pre-purchased HDB flat if the marriage is annulled and the housing allowance and interest previously received are repaid.
In his written reply on 28 November, Mr Lee said that first-time homeowner couples whose marriages were subsequently ruled invalid would mean that they would no longer be eligible for the allowance and would therefore have to pay it back to HDB.
They may also have to return their HDB flats to the Government, depending on the current compensation price. However, they will be deemed not to have received the allowance and will therefore be treated as first-time buyers the next time they purchase a HDB flat separately. He also said that HDB applicants who intend to or have cancelled their marriage contracts can seek assistance from HDB.
On the other hand, in a written reply to a query from Councillor Chua Hing Wai (Sengkang Constituency) about the Cash-Over-Valuation, Lee said that as of October, one in four buyers of HDB flats for resale this year paid the cash premium. This is higher than the one in five rate in 2020, but is an improvement on last year's situation (one in three).
The cash premium is the difference between the market valuation and the resale price, which buyers can only pay in cash. Lee Chi Sing noted that most buyers did not pay any cash premium. As for the cash premium paid by buyers for each market type, the 25th percentile and median price point were both zero, while the 75th percentile price point ranged from $5,000 to $38,000.
