SINGAPORE: National Development Minister Khaw Boon
Wan says the government is open to raising the income ceiling to
allow more singles to buy new HDB flats.
But this will depend on how manageable application
rates are for the new scheme, which was announced on Friday during
the Committee of Supply debate for the Ministry for National
Development.
Singaporeans aged 35 and above, who are singles and
earn up to S$5,000 a month, can soon apply to buy two-room
Build-To-Order (BTO) flats in non-mature estates.
The government is still finalising details of the policy but aims
to let the first batch of eligible singles apply in the July BTO
launch.
Speaking on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday, Mr Khaw
said housing policies need to be gently tweaked before more
adjustments are made.
He explained that baby steps are taken so as not to impact the
property market drastically.
This goes for building new homes too, and the trick is to determine
the correct supply to meet demand.
Mr Khaw said it would not be practical for the government to build
25,000 flats annually, if there are only 15,000 marriages.
Building in excess may also hurt the rental market where some
40,000 HDB flats are being sublet in whole.
"There are something like 80,000, 90,000 families out there - which
is a lot - who are depending on rental income. So they will suffer,
for example, if there is a collapse in the rental market," said Mr
Khaw.
Mr Khaw said housing policies cannot be toyed around with, like the
computer game "SimCity" where players are tasked to develop a
virtual city.
"Singapore is not 'SimCity', because if you manipulate wrongly, it
hurts people, real people, fellow Singaporeans. Then what? So, I
think, let's be a little bit reflective," he said.
Mr Khaw said there is no one perfect housing initiative that will
please everybody. The important thing is for Singaporeans to think
carefully about the trade-offs between different policies, he
said.
In this respect, he hopes citizens will come forward and have a
conversation with him, as the government fine-tunes the various
steps taken to improve the housing situation in Singapore.
Mr Khaw said it should take around two to four months to gather
views from different stakeholders.
While Members of Parliament and the public have offered
suggestions, Mr Khaw said it is crucial to determine which of them
are workable.
And a key indicator of this is how housing prices are
impacted.
Whatever trade-offs are made, they have to be sustainable over the
long term, said Mr Khaw.
On the various cooling measures introduced, Mr Khaw said the
government is aiming for a "soft-landing" approach, not a sharp
correction to the property market.
He said around 40 to 50 per cent of homeowners are still servicing
mortgages and a drastic drop in property prices may prompt banks to
ask the homeowners to top up loans, causing severe financial
problems.
- CNA/ir