In his first speech on housing in Parliament, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan vowed to focus on making housing available to two groups of homebuyers within the next two years.

Newlywed first-timers and vulnerable families are the two groups of homebuyers who are at the top of his priorities, said Mr Khaw.

He said that he will commit to help all newlywed first-timers earning below $10,000 per month to get their first HDB home as soon as possible, and help them "meet an important social objective of helping them to settle down and start their families."

HDB is already building 50,000 flats in the first two years but remains undecided on the scale of the Built-To-Order (BTO) programme beyond 2012.

"If the demand remains strong, we have the resources and the capacity to build more than 100,000 HDB flats during this term of Government," said Mr Khaw.

He also mentioned that future BTO project launches may be in the proposed Bidadari estate, which can potentially house up to 12,000 units.

Tengah Town will also be a new HDB Town, with possibility of housing 56,000 units when fully developed. However, Mr Khaw said that no BTO projects will be launched in Tengah during this term of government.

As for the affordability of flats, Mr Khaw acknowledged that the worry out there is that HDB prices will continue to rise, which has "led to alarm and some panic demand".

He said that he is "tackling the issue of affordability head on" and that "newlyweds eyeing new HDB flats do not need to worry that BTO price will run ahead of their income".

"As long as construction costs do not rise dramatically, the BTO prices will stabilise.

"In this way, new HDB flats will always be affordable to the newlywed first-timers, provided that their expectation is realistic," said Mr Khaw.