Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Affordable HDB flats

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Affordable HDB flats

Here are my proposals to provide affordable HDB flats to first time buyers. TKL website.

8 comments:

BobcatSysOp said...: Mr. Tan,
I am not able to view your link to tankinlian.com website when I click under View. Seems like I need to login but I have no account yet. How to go about it?.. Can email me please?.. I am a neighbor of Gerald Ho staying at the same condo and was advised to visit your website. My email is ykchan01@hotmail.com Bob YK Chan.; May 11, 2011 10:08 AM
Tan Choon Hong said...: I do second your idea of providing first-time buyers a true cost-plus price, with the usual proviso that it be returned to the HDB at the original purchase price if they relinquish within a 5-year period. There could also be a credit of a considerable sum towards the next flat purchase for each baby born.

As for rental flats, the government is unlikely to consider this proposal because of the prospect of throwing defaulting renters onto the streets. Will make them look bad.

Might be why banks are welcome to grant HDB loans, so the board can wash their hands of those pesky defaulters.; May 11, 2011 10:36 AM
Singapore's 5 Minute Investment Diary said...: When we were all poor in 1965.
When we had so little talent for nation building.

Somehow, we (Singapore talent) could build affordable HDB flats.

Now we have scholars everywhere.
And all our high priced local talents cannot find a way to build affordable HDB flats.

We need bloggers and netizens to come up with suggestions.

I'll stop here before I start ranting.; May 11, 2011 1:29 PM
yujuan said...: Oh, they have cornered themselves to a tight spot, and they don't know how to extricate out. So try to hoodwink people and talk about asset enhancement, but this big word make HDB owners can see the money value of their homes, but cannot touch. So they encourage older people to pledge their flats in the so-called reverse mortgage scheme, to get money out for monthly living expenses, ultimately only HDB or the Insurance Companies get the property upon death of these owners.
A brilliant, crafty planned scheme.; May 14, 2011 1:14 AM
william said...: first of all, HDB didn't build enough flats to cater for the demand of buyers, so asking for more flats for rental will only cause supply crunch further.

secondly, govt has always argued that HDB are already subsidised despite many calls for a review of the land pricing, so we can continue talking until the cow comes home they are unlikely to change.

someone has suggested selling HDB with a shorter than 99 yrs, such as 75 yrs in HK, which may be a workable solution if it would reduce the price of a flat substantially.

75 years should be more than enough for most people to live and bring up their family to the point that their children can be independent financially to start their own family. Afterall nowaday a lot of people are buying resale flats which are already 30+ years old and still paying top dollars for them.

But to ease supply crunch and moderate prices, the policy to allow PR to buy and sell HDB flats must be tightened up. As there are so many private properties in the pipeline with many available for rental, PR should not be allowed to buy within the first 5 years of their stay in Singapore.

Similarly, PR who bought the HDB flats should not be allowed to sell their flat within 10 years, and they cannot rent out their property if they leave Singapore. This is the best way to prevent PRs from profitting from HDB flats.; May 14, 2011 3:15 PM
BobcatSysOp said...: Bob here.. I did not get a response to my request to View your postings in TKL website. My email address is: ykchan01@hotmail.com; May 15, 2011 10:04 PM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Reply to Bob
Try with Internet Explorer. Or try on another computer. It works for other people, so it should work for you. There is no need to login.; May 16, 2011 6:03 AM
BobcatSysOp said...: Yes.. you are right. I am on Firefox and it works when I switched to use Internet Explorer Tab. Thanks.; May 17, 2011 1:12 PM