Hi anonymous!
I'm gonna answer the most important part of your question first.
TL;DR answer: while you have a current HDB BTO ballot number and are waiting to book your flat, you MAY continue to apply for a flat in another sales exercise as long as you have YET to book a flat.
And by sales exercise, I mean that you can apply for:
If you're damn kan cheong about getting a flat:
Open Booking of Flats (is the fastest)
Sale of Balance Flats (depends, as it's usually in May and November with the BTO launch)
another BTO (somewhat likely)
And of course, there is Resale. But that's another story.
Open Booking of Flats
If you need a flat immediately... Your best option is the Open Booking of Flats sales exercise which is available at any time of the year.
And there's a pretty robust system in place.
If you've already booked a flat, they'll remind you that you'll have to cancel your application for the booked flat first BEFORE you can submit a new application for this sales exercise (read: this entails various cancellation charges, depending on which step of the process you're at).
Source: HDB
If you haven't book a flat yet, just click "No, I have not booked a flat" and you'll probably be able to book a flat in the morning of the following day.
Yep. It's that fast.
Once you book your flat, your earlier ballot number for the BTO sales exercise will automatically be cancelled.
Sale of Balance and BTO Flat
Similar to the Open Booking of Flat, as long as you haven't booked a flat yet, you may apply for the Sale of Balance (SBF) or another BTO sale exercise.
Your being able to apply for an SBF sale exercise will largely depend on when you're applying. And that's because SBF only happens twice a year, usually in May and November.
Now, I say that it's only somewhat likely that you can apply for another BTO sales exercise while still waiting in line because once you submit your BTO application, this is what the timeline looks like:
Source: HDB
Basically, once you submit your application during the 1 week application period. It takes about 3 weeks before you're given your queue number. Then it takes about another 1 to 2 weeks while you wait in line (figuratively of course) before you are invited to book a flat.
This means that it takes about 1.5 to 2 months from the launch of the BTO sales exercise until you book a flat. While the next launch of the BTO sales exercise is in 3 months ā that's another 0.5 to 1 month away.
That being said, the timeline is only a gauge and can drag on longer than the ~2 months. So you might find yourself in a situation where you're still waiting in line to book a flat (because your queue number is like #1000 when there are only 300 flats available) and the next BTO and/ or SBF sales exercise is launched.
Also, given that we're dealing with COVID-19 right now, there'll be social distancing and spacing out of booking time slots, blah blah blah... So I can only imagine that the booking process will take even longer.
This all means that it's actually somewhat likely that the time you spend waiting in line to book a flat might stretch into the launch of the next BTO or SBF sales exercise.
Which is good news for some because in the worst-case scenario where your ballot number means that you're most likely not gonna be able to get your first choice of flats in the first BTO sales launch you applied for... you can still apply for the next BTO sales launch while still waiting. HDB won't cancel your ballot for the earlier application.
And you REALLY should still hold onto your ballot, because you never know...
This is because for HDB flats, the prevailing racial quota applies. Also, dropouts happen all the time (because of a variety of reasons: people being picky, change minds, and etc.) anytime while you're waiting to book a flat.
So just because you have a queue number that exceeds the flat supply for your project, it doesn't mean that it's game over.
Because if you hold out all the way to the end and you're damn heng. You might somehow manage to book an ideal (or a not too bad) flat despite being #1000. Once you do that, your application/ballot for the next BTO or SBF sales exercise will automatically be cancelled.
Worst case it's your turn and you have to book a flat, and there aren't any flats which you like... You can then choose to NOT proceed to book a flat. This is known as a non-selection (this is not a decision to take lightly, more on this in a bit).
But at the very least, you already have applied to another sales exercise and are still in the running to get a BTO flat of your own from the next launch.
About the First-Timer Advantage
If you're a first-timer household applying for a BTO, you will get 2 ballot chances as compared to second-timer applicants who only get 1 ballot chance.
If you're damn suay and are unsuccessful for 2 or more BTO applications as a first-timer in non-mature estates, you will get 1 additional ballot per subsequent application in non-mature estates.
You'll also get 2 non-selection counts as a first-timer household.
So during a 1-year period, if you choose to turn down 2 chances to book a flat. You will be counted as a second-timer for your subsequent flat application, at least up to 1 year from the date of your last non-selection of flat.
Closing Thoughts
The BTO process is really quite robust.
And HDB won't put you in a situation where you'll lose out, because you can definitely apply to more than one sales launch ā as long as you've not booked a flat yet.
Hope this helps. If you need more information about applying for your BTO, be sure to check out our Seedly BTO Guide!
Good luck!
Hi anonymous!
I'm gonna answer the most important part of your question first.
TL;DR answer: while you have a current HDB BTO ballot number and are waiting to book your flat, you MAY continue to apply for a flat in another sales exercise as long as you have YET to book a flat.
And by sales exercise, I mean that you can apply for:
another BTO launch
Sale of Balance Flats (SBF)
Open Booking of Flats
If you're damn kan cheong about getting a flat:
Open Booking of Flats (is the fastest)
Sale of Balance Flats (depends, as it's usually in May and November with the BTO launch)
another BTO (somewhat likely)
And of course, there is Resale. But that's another story.
Open Booking of Flats
If you need a flat immediately... Your best option is the Open Booking of Flats sales exercise which is available at any time of the year.
And there's a pretty robust system in place.
If you've already booked a flat, they'll remind you that you'll have to cancel your application for the booked flat first BEFORE you can submit a new application for this sales exercise (read: this entails various cancellation charges, depending on which step of the process you're at).
Source: HDB
If you haven't book a flat yet, just click "No, I have not booked a flat" and you'll probably be able to book a flat in the morning of the following day.
Yep. It's that fast.
Once you book your flat, your earlier ballot number for the BTO sales exercise will automatically be cancelled.
Sale of Balance and BTO Flat
Similar to the Open Booking of Flat, as long as you haven't booked a flat yet, you may apply for the Sale of Balance (SBF) or another BTO sale exercise.
Your being able to apply for an SBF sale exercise will largely depend on when you're applying. And that's because SBF only happens twice a year, usually in May and November.
Now, I say that it's only somewhat likely that you can apply for another BTO sales exercise while still waiting in line because once you submit your BTO application, this is what the timeline looks like:
Source: HDB
Basically, once you submit your application during the 1 week application period. It takes about 3 weeks before you're given your queue number. Then it takes about another 1 to 2 weeks while you wait in line (figuratively of course) before you are invited to book a flat.
This means that it takes about 1.5 to 2 months from the launch of the BTO sales exercise until you book a flat. While the next launch of the BTO sales exercise is in 3 months ā that's another 0.5 to 1 month away.
That being said, the timeline is only a gauge and can drag on longer than the ~2 months. So you might find yourself in a situation where you're still waiting in line to book a flat (because your queue number is like #1000 when there are only 300 flats available) and the next BTO and/ or SBF sales exercise is launched.
Also, given that we're dealing with COVID-19 right now, there'll be social distancing and spacing out of booking time slots, blah blah blah... So I can only imagine that the booking process will take even longer.
This all means that it's actually somewhat likely that the time you spend waiting in line to book a flat might stretch into the launch of the next BTO or SBF sales exercise.
Which is good news for some because in the worst-case scenario where your ballot number means that you're most likely not gonna be able to get your first choice of flats in the first BTO sales launch you applied for... you can still apply for the next BTO sales launch while still waiting. HDB won't cancel your ballot for the earlier application.
And you REALLY should still hold onto your ballot, because you never know...
This is because for HDB flats, the prevailing racial quota applies. Also, dropouts happen all the time (because of a variety of reasons: people being picky, change minds, and etc.) anytime while you're waiting to book a flat.
So just because you have a queue number that exceeds the flat supply for your project, it doesn't mean that it's game over.
Because if you hold out all the way to the end and you're damn heng. You might somehow manage to book an ideal (or a not too bad) flat despite being #1000. Once you do that, your application/ballot for the next BTO or SBF sales exercise will automatically be cancelled.
Worst case it's your turn and you have to book a flat, and there aren't any flats which you like... You can then choose to NOT proceed to book a flat. This is known as a non-selection (this is not a decision to take lightly, more on this in a bit).
But at the very least, you already have applied to another sales exercise and are still in the running to get a BTO flat of your own from the next launch.
About the First-Timer Advantage
If you're a first-timer household applying for a BTO, you will get 2 ballot chances as compared to second-timer applicants who only get 1 ballot chance.
If you're damn suay and are unsuccessful for 2 or more BTO applications as a first-timer in non-mature estates, you will get 1 additional ballot per subsequent application in non-mature estates.
You'll also get 2 non-selection counts as a first-timer household.
So during a 1-year period, if you choose to turn down 2 chances to book a flat. You will be counted as a second-timer for your subsequent flat application, at least up to 1 year from the date of your last non-selection of flat.
Closing Thoughts
The BTO process is really quite robust.
And HDB won't put you in a situation where you'll lose out, because you can definitely apply to more than one sales launch ā as long as you've not booked a flat yet.
Hope this helps. If you need more information about applying for your BTO, be sure to check out our Seedly BTO Guide!
Good luck!