SINGAPORE: About 17,000 new flats will be launched for sale this year, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said on Friday (Jan 26).

For the first Build-to-Order (BTO) exercise in February, HDB will offer 3,600 flats in Choa Chu Kang, Geylang, Tampines and Woodlands. A Re-Offer of Balance Flats exercise will also be held at the same time, it said.



HDB also said that resale prices for flats fell by 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year from the previous quarter, with the Resale Price Index falling from 132.8 to 132.6.

For the whole of 2017, the Resale Price Index declined by 1.5 per cent.

The number of resale transactions fell by 1.2 per cent in the fourth quarter with 5,738 transactions compared to 5,808 in the previous quarter. However, compared to the previous year, the number of transactions was up 14.5 per cent.



For the whole of 2017, the number of resale transactions increased by 6.1 per cent, from 20,813 to 22,077.

The number of HDB flats rented out also increased, with 11,279 flats in the fourth quarter, a 5.4 per cent increase from 10,698 in the third quarter.

As of Dec 31 last year, there were a total of 53,750 flats rented out, an increase of 0.6 per cent from the third quarter.