THE Housing Board will be selling unsold flats on a quarterly and half-yearly basis, instead of on a bi-monthly and monthly basis.

Announcing this change on Thursday, the HDB said this is because of the progressive reduction of its unsold stock.

From July 1, the HDB will sell three-room and smaller unsold flats once a quarter. The bigger flats - three-room premium and above - will be sold in a half-yearly exercise starting from Oct 10.

Also, HDB will consolidate the supply of unsold four-room and bigger flats under a single launch. They were previously grouped under three sectors - North & West, Northeast and Established towns.

A larger supply of unsold flats will thus be offered for sale under each launch, said the HDB.

There is good news for first-time buyers. Responding to public feedback, the HDB will now set aside 90 per cent of the flat supply in these exercises for first-time applicants. They will also enjoy double chances over regular applicants under the ballot to determine their queue position.

New unsold flats on offer
The HDB on Thursday also launched the sale of 490 four-room and bigger flats in the North and West zones under the April bi-monthly sale exercise. This lot consists of 76 four-room flats, 371 five-room flats and 43 executive flats.

They are in various towns such as Bukit Batok, Jurong East and Yishun.