Lee Hsien Yang on HDB lease decay: “Singaporeans, are you better off today than you were two years ago?”

Asking if HDB leases can be more than just “depreciating assets worth zero”, Lee Hsien Yang wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday (Jul 10) that Singapore should look to study examples elsewhere.

Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, asked if HDB leases have a “beyond zero” option.

“Today, retirement and housing has become like a game of snakes and ladders, but with more snakes and fewer ladders. Effectively, almost all HDB flats will turn into depreciating assets worth zero. This is the ticking time bomb of the lease decay”, the younger Mr Lee wrote.

Mr Lee continued that the HDB blocks in Singapore must revert to the government when the leases’ 99 years are up. There is no lease extension and no compensation.

“The government has said this is the only way to recycle land and provide affordable housing to future generations. If so, then why does the SERS, the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme, pay market price as compensation? What makes only 5 percent of all HDBs SERS-worthy, has not been officially detailed”, he added.

He explained that a system that would enable lease extensions beyond 99 years should be something that could be considered. He cited Hong Kong, where a lease could be extended for 50 years and is subject to an annual rent of 3 per cent rateable value of the property at the date of extension.

“Is it so difficult for Singapore to study examples of these elsewhere, with a view to adopting some elements of the best ideas?” he asked.

“The refusal to even consider lease extensions makes hostages of the elderly who face being uprooted and downgraded to smaller flats, or perhaps even made homeless, the retirees who cannot pass on an inheritance to their children, the middle aged parents who still have loans left to pay.

The urgency now is on finding a long term fix to the HDB lease decay”, Mr Lee wrote.

He called that a “progressive, compassionate government” would enable lease extensions. Such a government would “dip into those legendary reserves, or cut the GST. And give people more freedom with the money they put into the CPF”.

“It should not be an inevitable countdown to zero destroying the promised dream of a settled future for which Singaporeans have paid and kept paying all their lives, paid GST, paid into CPF, paid with obedience and acquiescence, and paid with votes in 2020”, Mr Lee wrote.

Ending his post, he asked: “Singaporeans, are you better off today than you were two years ago?”

Within hours, Mr Lee’s post garnered over 2,200 likes, almost 900 shares and 428 comments. /TISG