SINGAPORE — National servicemen have over 6,000 outlets to spend their S$100 NS50 recognition vouchers, the Defence Ministry (Mindef) announced on Thursday (May 18).

Besides the likes of supermarkets like Giant, and restaurants like Jack’s Place, Singapore Airlines and ezbuy are among the merchants who accept the vouchers. The list of merchants span the food and beverage, shopping and lifestyle, IT and telco, travel and leisure, as well as entertainment sectors.

The vouchers are part of a recognition package to mark 50 years of National Service (NS50).

Besides the vouchers, the package includes one year complimentary SAFRA or HomeTeamNS membership for full-time national servicemen (NSF) who are serving or have served operationally ready NS (NSmen), and a complimentary five-year PAssion Card membership. Registration for the PAssion Card has to be done separately.

The distribution to more than one million former and current national servicemen will be conducted in phases starting from mid-May, Mindef said.

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All NSFs, and NSmen who are existing SAFRA or HomeTeamNS members, will receive their packages by mail.

Non-members will have to wait for their notification letters, which will be sent out from late July, before they can go online to register for their packages. They will have to register by June next year, and the vouchers are valid for use till Dec 31 next year.

Details of the participating merchants can be found at http://www.mindef.gov.sg/NS50/merchantlist.html, http://www.safra.sg/ns50faq and http://www.hometeamns.sg/aboutns50/#perks.

^{(Click to enlarge. Image: Ministry of Defence)}

SINGAPORE: A total of 8,748 new flats were launched on Thursday (May 18) under the May 2017 Build-to-Order (BTO) and Sale of Balance Flats exercise, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) said.

There will be six new BTO projects – two in Woodlands, one in Yishun, two in Bidadari and one in Geylang – with 4,802 flats. The flats are priced from S$73,000 for a two-room Flexi flat in Woodlands to S$622,000 for a 3Gen flat in Bidadari.

A total of 3,946 balance flats in 11 non-mature towns and 14 mature towns and estates are also on offer. These flats are priced from S$73,000 for a two-room Flexi unit to S$480,000 for an executive flat.

Starting from this sales exercise, HDB will implement the Deferred Downpayment Scheme, where elderly flat owners aged 55 years and above who “right size” to a two-room Flexi or three-room uncompleted flat may defer the downpayment on their new flat until they collect their keys.

The scheme will be extended automatically to eligible flat buyers and will help ease the cash flow for elderly flat owners whose funds are tied up in their existing home, HDB said.

Applications for new flats can be submitted online at HDB’s website from now until next Wednesday.

This is the second BTO launch this year, bringing the total number of BTO flats offered this year to 8,858 units. Together with the 3,946 balance flats offered in this exercise, HDB has launched a total of 12,804 flats for sale in the first half of this year.

Another 3,850 flats in Bukit Batok and Sengkang will be launched in August, HDB said.