Monday, May 30, 2011

Keeping HDB flats affordable

The new minister for national development, Khaw Boon Wan, is taking the problem of rising HDB prices in earnest. He is building 25,000 new flats andmore than 10,000 rental flats. The strategy to increase supply rapidly, to meet demand, is likely to work to contain prices. If he sells the HDB flats at cost of land and construction, it will help to mitigate the price increase.

I hope that the minister will build more rental flats, which do not need to be subsidised. Give people a choice to rent a flat, rather than to own a flat. It will encourage them to live near their place of work (i.e. easier to move when one rents a flat, rather than own a flat). See my article.

6 comments:

Weng Mao Fa said...

Get the People Liberation Army to help, they can do the task within 1month time!

In Bangkok , rental rate of a 45m2 room (fully furnished w/aircon) is
Baht 5000/month. Hope HDB can do a better job than private developer in Bangkok.

michael13 said...

This is one of the very few ministers who is NOT on the apprentice scheme because he is able to use his 'common sense' to swing into action fast and address the immediate concerns and problems of the people. Unlike the newly-appointed Education (full)Minister, Mr. Heng Swee Kiat who needs to give himself more time and talk to more people before he can decide on 'what to do' and to further improve on our education system.

No wonder Singapore has been hard-pressed to significantly improve our productivity over the past decades. To start a minister's salary at million of dollars with this kind of ability and level of competency, to many and in which is a disservice to Singaporeans, in this case, much shortchange many taxpayers in this resource-scarce tiny island nation.

Daniel said...

A house is a basic necessity other than food.

If Singaporeans have to work so hard to repay their mortgage loans and at the same time worry about high living cost, education, job, and medical cost, then I think we have lost all essence of living.

We are definitely not progressing as a nation. The state gets richer, the people get poorer.

Capping new HDB price for first time buyers at very affordable price is one way to go.

Having affordable rental flats as an option is also another way to go.

Stop the practice of rental of HDB flats by owners is worth considering. Afterall, HDB flat is meant for living and not for investment.

Stop PRs from buying HDB flats is worth thinking about. HDB can provide afforadable rental to them. PRs can buy private apt/condo if they so choose to. If they would like to buy HDB, let them become Singaporeans first.

Ultimately, we must not put Singapareans to compete with non-Singaporeans on basic necessity. This is our mother land. We have a far bigger stake in this nation than them.

Daniel

yujuan said...

Although don't live in HDB flats, can't see the logic of PRs buying such subsidized flats, and then these foreigners sell them back to Singaporeans at a profit when they
leave for greener pastures.
PAP is the only Govt in the world who don't love the locals.
Other countries love their own citizens to patronize their local tourist attractions by offering them very cheap ticket fees, except the Singapore Govt.
Who wants to go to Sentosa if a local family has to pay a few hundred dollars. This same mindset extend into public housing, and they say Singaporeans always come first. Just lame talk, no back up with action. Now we close our ears and become deaf whenever the Govt opens its mouth. Chye chye liao.

Gary123 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Yoshimitsu Family Blog said...

Income ceiling needs to be Per Capita within the same household unit. Not combined income.

Per capita = Combined income divide by number of person in the household.

A breadwinner can earn 10K per month, but when he/she has to feed 5-6 people, it is still a heavy burden.

Blog Archive