Pledge to keep HDB flats affordable for all?
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Last week during the Parliament debate on the President’s address, PM Lee pledged that housing will remain affordable for Singaporeans.
He then gave a recap of the progress made on that hot-button issue since 2011. In the last three years, 52,000 flats have been built, the equivalent of two Clementi new towns, he said.
The amount of subsidies given out for flats has almost doubled. “And the situation is now under control, as many MPs have acknowledged,” he said.
He also praised the good job done by National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan, to the applause from the House.
But Singaporeans are still focused on housing, PM Lee noted.
On May Day, he met some unionists from the pioneer generation, who reminisced about buying three-room flats for just $6,800 on a salary of $300. That is, these 3-room flats were bought at about 1.9 times of the household’s annual salary.
The children of the pioneer generation are still worried about housing prices.
“So I explained what I have explained so many times before – how we are keeping flats affordable for their children’s generation as well,” PM Lee tried to assure.
Home ownership is not just about providing shelter, but giving everyone a stake in the country and boosting the assets of lower-income Singaporeans, he said.
He also talked about the government providing “generous grants” for households to buy HDB flats.
“Where for $1,000 income, you can start to buy an HDB flat and have a substantial nest egg for your retirement, with the help of this Government?” PM Lee asked.
Khaw’s promises
So, what is the current definition of “affordable housing” by the government?
In Parliament March 2013 [Link], Minister Khaw said more would be done to reduce BTO flat prices relative to income, and to reduce the financial burden of housing on the young:
We have stopped BTO prices from rising by delinking them from resale prices. We can now pause and see what else we can do to bring BTO prices in non-mature estates to, say, around 4 years of (annual) salary as it was before the current property cycle started.
One thing is clear. We are committed to restoring and maintaining the affordability of new HDB flats to the vast majority of first-timer Singaporean households. Their Singapore Dream of owning their own flats, like their parents’, is safe. We will make sure of that.
Note that Mr Khaw used the term “restoring” the affordability of new HDB flats and note that he avoided talking about resale flat prices and preferred to focus on new BTO HDB flats.
TRE then examined the latest BTO launches [Link] to see if the government has fulfilled its promise of restoring BTO prices in non-mature estates to around 4 years of annual salary(‘Latest HDB BTO still not affordable as promised‘).
In the latest May BTO launches in Marsiling, for example, we see:
Typical 2-room (I) @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $35,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $1,700
- Price to annual household income = 1.7
Typical 2-room (II) @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $55,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $1,700
- Price to annual household income = 2.7
Typical 3-room @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $125,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $2,600
- Price to annual household income = 4.0
Typical 4-room @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $240,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $4,400
- Price to annual household income = 4.5
Typical 5-room @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $350,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $5,800
- Price to annual household income = 5.0
Typical 3Gen @ Marsiling Greenview:
- Nett selling price less grants = $355,000
- Applicants’ median monthly household income = $5,800
- Price to annual household income = 5.1
From the above calculations, except for 2-room and 3-room flats, the BTO prices for 4-room and above in these launches are still way above 4 years of annual salary.
One can only conclude that the government has yet to fulfill its pledge to bring down ALL the BTO prices in non-mature estates to around 4 years of annual salary, especially for first-timer Singaporean households.
The
midle-income group is especially hard-hit.
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Above by
http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/06/02/pledge-to-keep-hdb-flats-affordable-for-all/
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Sorry to say that lhl's fart is more real than his pledge.
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Why green green one?
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hey, why do you use the green color? we can't see!
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I did a cut and paste. I did not know it turned out to be green.
Go to the link to read.
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Their definition of affordable is apparently much different from ours.
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Now hdb bto flats affordable or not?
Or still need 25 - 30 year housing loan to pay off?
Like that how much cpf left for retirement?
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Green green?
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Here are some tips for you http://www.fastfifa14.com and if you think it's useful please share it with your frieds.TKS :)
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Originally posted by Renepaleypaley:
Here are some tips for you http://www.fastfifa14.com and if you think it's useful please share it with your frieds.TKS :)
Got 'Coin' for HDB or not?
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What did you say?
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