Housing subsidies – CPF family grant

Written by Wong Wei Chen
Why is it that the CPF Housing Grant for Family can be used for resale flats but not new flats sold through the Build-to-Order (BTO) Scheme? And while you’re not allowed to use the grant for new BTO flats, why is it that you can use it to fund your purchase of new DBSS apartments and EC units?

Like I mentioned last week, treat the CPF family grant as a basic type of subsidy within a multi-tiered system, then adopt the premise that base-tier subsidies cannot be simultaneously applied to a given property, and things will start to fall into place.

When you can use the family grant
Unlike new BTO flats, which enjoy a regular market subsidy (another base-tier subsidy), DBSS flats, EC units and resale flats are considered priced at market value. It is for this reason that the CPF family grant can be applied to the latter group of properties, but not the former.

Other eligibility conditions
A long-running tenet upheld by the HDB is the provision of homes for first-timers, which consists mainly of young couples looking for their first flats. In line with this principle, the CPF Housing Grant for Family can only be utilised by first-timers. (Do note, however, that first-timers may use this grant for the purchase of either new of resale flats.)

While the co-applicant or essential occupier can be a Singapore permanent resident, the HDB requires the grant recipient to be a Singapore citizen who is legally an adult.

The amount of grant disbursed is predicated upon several criteria, which includes household type, proximity to parents or married children, type of property applied for and other conditions.

For more details, check out the HDB InfoWEB.