IT LOOKS like the time-wasters have got the message after the Housing Board tightened rules for flat applications.

The launch of 1,485 premium flats in Punggol and Sengkang closed on Wednesday with 4,050 applications - still oversubscribed but at about half the level seen before the new rules kicked in.

Some sales launches had become free-for-alls, with thousands of people who had no real intention of buying still lodging applications just to their options open.

This was evident in the actual take-up rate for flats, which was sharply lower than the number of applicants.

Apart from creating an administrative headache for the HDB, such frivolous applicants also meant deserving buyers were pushed further back in the queue.

Now a first-timer who twice rejects an offer to buy a flat at a build-to-order (BTO) or balloting sales exercise will lose his first-timer priorities for a year.

In other words, he will be sent to the back of the queue with the second-timers.

Read the full story in Thursday's edition of The Straits Times.