My spouse and I want to buy a Resale HDB Flat

Owning a home with your spouse is the dreams of every couples, but not all couples are eligible for purchasing a resale HDB flat. In order to be qualified, you need to form a family nucleus and the owners of the flat need to be a Singapore Citizen or a Singapore Permanent Resident.

HDB offers 2 different schemes and each scheme has its own set of criteria. You could only purchase a resale HDB flat under one of these schemes.

Age
You must be at least 21.

Family Nucleus
You must form a family nucleus, such as:
• Your spouse and children, if any; or
• Your parents and siblings; or
• Your children under your legal custody, care and control (for widowed, divorced or separated persons).

Income Ceiling
There are no income ceiling, however, should you apply for the CPF Housing Grant, your household income must be less than $3000 (for CPF Housing Grant for Single) or $8000 (for CPF Housing Grant for Family), else you will not be granted the CPF Housing Grant.

Ownership of Private Residential Property
You can own private property but must live in the resale HDB flat, but if you are applying for CPF Housing Grant, you or your spouse MUST not be owners of any private property.

Ethnic Integration Policy
You are allowed to buy a resale HDB flat in any town or estate, but provided that the approved proportion of your ethnic group has not been reached.

The Ethnic Integration Policy is a government regulation to ensure that there are equal or even distributions of different ethnic groups in each town or estate.

CPF Housing Grant for Singles or for Family
If you are eligible to apply for a resale HDB flat under this scheme, you are most likly to be eligible to apply for the CPF Housing Grant for Family or Singles.

Non-Citizen Spouse Scheme (NCS)

If your spouse is a non-citizen, but you are a Singapore Citizen, you will be allowed to purchase a resale HDB flat under the Non-Citizen Scheme.

To apply under the Non-Citizen Scheme you must meet the following eligibility conditions:

Citizenship
You must be a Singapore Citizen.

Age
There are 2 different criteria in the minimum age requirement, depending on the social visit pass that your spouse is holding.

If your spouse is holding a social visit pass (including work permit), you must be at least 21 in order to be eligible to apply under this scheme and your spouse should be granted at least 6 months for his/her social visit pass.

If your spouse is holding a social visit pass (including work permit) but is less than 6 months, you could only apply under this scheme if you are at least 35

If the social visit pass expires during the resale transaction, you have to produce the renewed social visit pass at the point of completion of the resale transaction.

Family Nucleus
You are married to a non-citizen.

Income Ceiling
There are no income ceiling, however, should you apply for the CPF Housing Grant for Single, your household income must be less than $3000, else you will not be granted the CPF Housing Grant.

Ownership of Private Residential Property
You can own private property but must live in the resale HDB flat, but if you are applying for CPF Housing Grant, you or your spouse MUST not be owners of any private property.

Ethnic Integration Policy
You are allowed to buy a resale HDB flat in any town or estate, but provided that the approved proportion of your ethnic group has not been reached.

The Ethnic Integration Policy is a government regulation to ensure that there are equal or even distributions of different ethnic groups in each town or estate.

CPF Housing Grant for Singles
Unlike couples who are both Singapore Citizens or Singapore Permanent Resident, you could only apply for the CPF Housing Grant for Singles instead of for Family.

Back to Guide to Purchasing a Resale HDB Flat

Note : This information is provided only as a reference. It is updated as frequent as possible, however, readers are advice to obtain the latest information from www.hdb.gov.sg