Close to 230 babies have been born to couples living in Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) flats, wrote Senior Minister of State (Prime Minister’s Office) Josephine Teo in a Facebook post, reported Channel NewsAsia.
Introduced in January 2013, the scheme offers interim housing for those who have booked an uncompleted HDB unit under the Build-to-Order (BTO) or Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises. Applicants under the Fiancé/Fiancée Scheme or married couples, and widowed or divorced parents with children, are eligible to rent a flat under the PPHS.
Currently, there are around 1,900 PPHS flats in several locations including Jurong, Tiong Bahru and Commonwealth, said Teo, who also helps oversee the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD).
She noted that couples need not wait until their BTO flats are completed before marrying or having a child since PPHS offers a temporary rental option within an HDB setting.
“It’s a helpful scheme which I hope HDB will similarly scale up if there’s demand,” she added.
National Development Minister Lawrence Wong recently revealed that this year’s supply of BTO flats will increase by 3,000 units from last year to 18,000 units. This comes after the last BTO exercise in November 2015 saw a healthy response.
“With affordable HDB housing more readily available now, young couples should not wait too long to welcome (a) baby to the family,” said Teo.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
