Welcome to the second part of “Our PPHS Journey” series where I intend to share my complete journey renting a PPHS flat.
OUR PPHS JOURNEY SERIES
Part 1: Why PPHS?
Part 2: PPHS Procedures
Part 3: What To Do After Getting Your PPHS Keys?
In this article, I will share the entire PPHS renting procedures, starting from application, balloting and key collection, based on my own experience.
Do note that the procedure may change from time to time. You should check HDB website for the latest update.
What is PPHS?
First of all, in case you’re not aware, PPHS stands for Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme. In short, this scheme allows families who are waiting for the completion of their HDB flats that are under-construction.
Some of these flats are old flats, and some are new flats. Some has lift landing on every floor, some don’t.
How Much is the PPHS Rental Fee?
The rental costs vary from S$400 to S$1,400, depending on size and location. Below is the PPHS rental fee extracted from HDB website here.
Location | Flat Type | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-room | 3-room | 4-room | |
| Ang Mo Kio | – | $800 | – |
| Balestier | – | $700 | – |
| Bishan | – | $800 | – |
| Bukit Batok | $500 | $700 | – |
| Bedok | $500 | $700 | – |
| Bukit Merah / Redhill | – | $700 | – |
| Bukit Merah / Bukit Purmei / Havelock / Jalan Klinik / Bukit Ho Swee | – | $900 | – |
| Telok Blangah | – | $900 | – |
| Smith Street / Tanjong Pagar Plaza / Upper Cross Street | – | $900 | – |
| Choa Chu Kang | $400 | – | – |
| Chin Swee / Jalan Besar | – | $800 | – |
| Chander Road / Waterloo | – | $900 | – |
| Clementi / West Coast | $400 | $800 / $900 | – |
| Aljunied / Geylang / Cassia / Eunos / Guillemard | – | $600 / $700 / $800 | – |
| Hougang | $500 | $600 / $700 | – |
| Jurong East | $700 | – | |
| Boon Lay / Jurong West | $500 | $600 / $700 | – |
| Geylang Bahru / French Road / Jalan Bahagia / Kallang Bahru / Maude Rd King George’s Avenue / Owen Road | $550 | $800 | – |
| Serangoon | – | $800 | – |
| Marine Parade | – | $800 | – |
| Buona Vista / Dover / Commonwealth / Queenstown | $550 | $700 / $800 | – |
| Tampines | – | $700 | – |
| Toa Payoh / Upper Aljunied | $550 | $700 / $800 | – |
| Punggol | $500 | – | – |
| Canberra / Sembawang | $400 | – | – |
| Marsiling / Woodlands | $400 | $600 | – |
| Yishun | $500 | $600 / $700 | – |
| Clementi (Singapore Polytechnic)* | $1,146 / $1,296 | ||
| Tampines (Temasek Polytechnic)* | $1,328 | ||
*HDB has rented Polytechnic Apartments for use under the PPHS. These apartments are comparable to 5-room flats.
Who Can Apply for PPHS
You can read the official list of eligibility requirements for PPHS application on HDB website. But let me summarize it and explain it in simple terms.
You have booked an uncompleted flat (could be BTO, SBF or Open Booking of flats under-construction)
Your family falls under one of the 3 conditions below:
- Married couples
- Fiancé/Fiancée Scheme
- Divorced or widowed parent with children
Your family must have 2 Singapore Citizens (2SC) or 1 Singapore Citizen and 1 PR (1SC + 1PR)
Everyone in your PPHS household must not own a property (if you have, you must dispose your property in 6 months)
All members of your PPHS household must be listed in your BTO/SBF/OB sales application.
Based on your BTO/SBF/OB sales application, your monthly household income must be $7,000 or below (it doesn’t matter if your income has increased after BTO/SBF/OB sales application)
If you are sharing a PPHS flat with another PPHS household, the total number of occupants must not exceed 6 per flat (Note: Flat sharing is only for 3-room or larger PPHS flats).
How to Apply for PPHS
At the time of writing, PPHS is launched once every two months, during the even months (Feb, Apr, Jun, Aug, Oct, Dec). The application is open from 1st to the 14th of the month.
During the application period, here’s what you need to do:
- See through the list of flats available for application and decide if you want to proceed with application.
- If yes, head to PPHS website and click on the link under Step 1 to submit application. No need to rush, allocation is based on balloting, not first-come, first-served.
- You don’t need to choose number of rooms or locations during application.
- After filling up your information, make payment of S$10. If your browser freeze or gives error message for whatever reason (it happened to me too many times) and you can’t complete the payment, send an email to HDB and they will guide you on how to make manual payment.
- Wait for balloting result
Balloting
The result of balloting will be announced the following month, around the first or second week. You will receive the result via SMS.
You will have priority if you have a child, are expecting a child, or sharing the PPHS flat with another family with child or expecting a child. Of course, you need to submit your child’s particulars, or your doctor’s letter if you’re expecting, to let HDB knows about your child/pregnancy.
If you are successful in balloting, you will receive the appointment date which will take place in the same month (i.e. the odd months).
What to do Before Appointment Day
Site survey: You will receive the physical invitation letter in your mailbox, together with the complete address of the available flats. With this, you can find out exactly which unit is available for selection.
You can visit the unit and observe the unit’s exterior condition, the estate condition and the neighbor’s situation.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see the interior. Most of the PPHS interior are decent enough, because HDB had done renovation and painting before releasing it as PPHS unit. Still, there are some bad units (with defects and/or pests) that you won’t be able to find out until you get the keys.
You can see the floor plan from HDB’s PPHS website, so you can roughly estimate the size of the unit.
Make a shortlist: Once you’ve done site survey, you can shortlist the units that you want, in the order of your preference.
Monitor available units: When selection begins, you can monitor the list of flats available for successful application. When a unit has been chosen, this list will be updated immediately, so you can refine your shortlist if your preferred unit has been taken.
Prepare your payment: To confirm your selection you need to make payment on selection day. The acceptable payment methods are cash and NETS. So, make sure you prepare the necessary cash, or ensure your bank account has sufficient amount if you’re using NETS.
Appointment Day
Congrats, you’re almost at the final step! On the appointment day, you will be able to select your desired flat, make payment and collect the keys immediately!
Bring the invitation letter and arrive at HDB Hub early!
If you are not able to attend the appointment, the bad news is it’s not possible to reschedule (I asked before, because I couldn’t make it to my appointment as I’ve already booked my trip). My advice is: don’t travel during the third and fourth week of odd months!
The good news is, you can appoint someone to attend the appointment on your behalf! Simply write an authorization letter (check with HDB again, who knows if they’ve changed their rules).
The appointed person can select the flat on your behalf, but they can’t make payment and collect the keys. During that day, the appointed person will discuss with the HDB officer and set a deferred appointment day for you to come to HDB to make payment and collect the keys.
The most important thing to note is this: if you do not turn up/appoint someone to turn up during your appointment day for 2 times, you will have to wait for 1 year before you are able to apply for PPHS again.
I think that’s fair. There are many people who are in serious need of housing but can’t get a number for so many months / years (like me!). So, if you manage to get a number, and you’re in serious need of housing, I recommend that you proceed with flat selection.
Flat Selection
During flat selection, you can select from the remaining available flats which can be of any size and any locations. All selections are done in sequence, so you don’t have to worry whether the person behind you will select a flat first before you.
Payment
After selecting a flat, you will be asked to make payment, either by cash or NETS. Credit card is not accepted.
The payment consists of:
- First month rental
- 1-month rental deposit
- Stamp fees
At the same time, you can also submit GIRO form to authorize HDB to deduct monthly rental from your bank account.
Signing of Tenancy Agreement & Key Collection
Then, you’ll be signing the tenancy agreement and receive a set of keys of your PPHS flat! Do read through the agreement carefully and ask questions if you have any doubt.
In my opinion, the tenancy terms are pretty straight-forward and quite fair. The length of tenancy is max 3 years, but you can apply to extend if your flat is not ready by the end of the 3 years.
The officer will finally hand you the keys. Do check if the list of keys and the quantity of the keys tally. You won’t be able to check whether the keys work or not during the collection.
After collecting the keys, the first thing you should do is to open SP account at SP Services Center that’s located at HDB Hub.
And the second thing to do is to visit your PPHS flat immediately to check whether the keys work, and whether there are any defects in the PPHS flat.
In the next article, I’ll write more details about what to do after getting the keys to your PPHS flat! Stay tuned!
If you find this post helpful, feel free to buy me a coffee :)
