SINGAPORE – About 40 per cent of ongoing Build-To-Order (BTO) projects are delayed owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Housing Board said it expects to clear the backlog in about two years.

HDB on Saturday said the proportion of such delayed BTO projects has come down from more than 90 per cent in 2021 on the back of the improving Covid-19 and migrant manpower situation, as well as government support for the construction industry.

In the past two years, HDB has completed 55 per cent of BTO projects – or 52 projects – delayed by pandemic-related factors. This project completion rate is the highest in the past five years, said HDB chief executive Tan Meng Dui.

“Over the next two years, we will continue to work hard to minimise delays of our BTO projects and press on to deliver more homes to our flat buyers, without compromising safety and quality,” he said.

The first BTO project to be completed without any delays since the pandemic began will be ready by the first quarter of 2023, said HDB.

Keat Hong Verge, located in the non-mature estate of Choa Chu Kang, has 987 two-room flexi, three-room, four-room and five-room units across five blocks.

HDB noted that flat owners would have waited just slightly over two years for their units in this project when they get their keys, despite its August 2020 launch at a time when the construction industry was suffering a manpower and supply crunch.

Since 2018, HDB has been offering some BTO flats with shorter waiting times of less than three years by starting construction works before launching the projects.

To date, close to 11,000 flats with shorter waiting times have been launched. Of these, about 7,200 fl...