HDB announced a new rule which is going to take immediate effect which will allow those selling their HDB flats to live in their old homes for up to 3 months more.
Sellers are now able to negotiate to stay in their homes in order to have time to finish renovations in their new homes or to receive the full funds from the sale of their old homes to put toward a new home.
Khaw Boon Wan announced the changes in a blog post where he also explained that the HDB had decided on 3 months as this seemed an appropriate amount of time to give sellers time to complete the purchase and make necessary arrangements for their next home.
He said that the policy tweaks should benefit about 15% of all resale transactions every year and these there are roughly 2,000 families each year who report problems with the sales process.
In order to qualify for an extension on living in your current house, sellers need to show that they have already committed to buy another home and then they can submit the application for extension of stay with their resale application.