Attractive prices behind surge in demand from singles for 2-room flexi flats

Among the hopeful applicants in the just concluded October Build-To-Order (BTO) sales exercise is Mr Liu Dawei, who applied for a two-room flexi flat in Sengkang.

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Mr Liu, who is single, had initially set his sights on a Housing Board flat in Bedok, but when he saw that there were over 19 single applicants vying for each of the available two-room flexi flats there, he decided to go for a unit in Sengkang instead.

Even so, the 36-year-old's chances are only slightly better in Sengkang – its singles' application rate, the number of single applicants per flat, is 13.4 for two-room units.

"I'm still not very hopeful and will probably need to manage my expectations. The response from singles is overwhelming," said Mr Liu, a senior human resources executive. This is the second time he is making a bid for a two-room flat. He previously applied under the Sale of Balance Flats scheme in Sengkang but was unsuccessful.

Single applicants like Mr Liu were behind the surge in demand in the just-concluded BTO sales exercise, which attracted 35,678 applications overall for 8,573 flats.

But it was the 1,902 two-room flexi flats that drew overwhelming demand – with a median application rate of 26.3 for singles across the seven towns where these flats were put up for sale.