SINGAPORE: In response to a recent letter published in The Straits Times Forum, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) underlined that resale flats remain affordable for most home buyers.
Sia Tze Ming, HDB’s Director for Policy and Property, referred to a Forum piece by Chan Hean Boon on Aug 23, wherein Mr Chan expressed the hope that million-dollar resale flat transactions would be refrained from being publicized by the media.
Ms Sia thanked Mr Chan for his feedback and agreed with him about “sensationalized reports” regarding million-dollar resale flats, adding that this may influence market behaviour.
She also wrote that the proportion of HDB flats with very high resale is very small, with million-dollar flat transactions only amounting to 2 per cent in the past year and a half.
Additionally, these are mostly the larger units, such as executive apartments or five-room flats in prime locations with many years left on their leases. For smaller flats, less than 0.5 per cent have been re-sold for more than S$1 million.
“For the vast majority of home buyers, resale flats remain affordable. Eight in 10 first-timer families who bought their resale flats in 2023 could service their loan instalments using their monthly Central Provident Fund contributions, with little or no cash payments,” she added.
When Ms Sia’s piece in ST Forum was shared in a Reddit Singapore post on Sept 3, many commenters chimed in with their two cents.
One Reddit user wrote that even if the number of million-dollar resale flat transactions were to be set aside, this does not change the fact that resale flat prices have increased.
“Over the same period, the salary of the vast majority hasn’t risen nearly as much,” they wrote, expressing the concern that the “government hasn’t rolled out anything effective at halting or reversing the price increase so far.”
Another pointed out that with increased prices, some adult children cannot afford to move out of their parents’ homes. Some also said that high home prices are causing parents to work more and not have as much time for their children.
Another commenter used the analogy of cai png, or economy rice, to get their point across. “It’s like if the cai png price went up and you can only afford one less dish now and this guy comes in and says food remains affordable as people are still able to afford eating cai png.” /TISG
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