Vikram Nair: Waive or reduce Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for HDB resale flats to help lower prices

With prices of Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flats climbing for the tenth consecutive quarter, to 2.4 per cent in the third quarter of 2022, suggestions were made in Parliament on Thursday (Oct 20) to assist the market.

Member of Parliament (Sembawang GRAC – PAP) Vikram Nair touched on his previous suggestion regarding the supply of HDB resale flats and how this could increase in the market.

“Because with more resale flats in the market, that would lower the resale price and hopefully get more first-timers to look into the resale market,” he explained. He previously suggested looking at reducing or waiving the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for resale flats.

“To be fair, I think the answer I was given then was that may not be a viable solution because those who sell resale flats will go back into the market.”

He then asked if the MOP could be waived or reduced for those who sell resale flats but don’t intend to return to the market.

He cited those who are moving to stay with their children or upgrading to private property as some examples.

Currently, the HDB MOP is five years for most flats, except for Prime Location Public Housing flats (10 years) and property under the Fresh Start Housing Scheme (20 years).

During the MOP, homeowners are not allowed to sell or lease out the entire flat. The homeowners are also prohibited from buying other private property.

“The HDB MOP helps to prevent homeowners from ‘flipping’ their newly-purchased flat for a profit immediately. This curbs and prevents the ‘lottery effect’ from taking hold, especially for prime-district HDB flats,” notes HDB on its website. /TISG

HDB resale flats in Tampines and Punggol sold for over S$1 million, more records broken