but you see, HDB, SLA are all part of the government, and they
are already "paid" in the form of taxes. the land belongs to the
country, to the people anyway.
furthermore, its not like you get to keep the land or your HDB
apartment freehold. you don't get a land deed, and you basically
dun actually get to buy the HDB flat. you merely pay a lump sum
rental for 99years.
when i buy something, e.g. a piece of gold, it means that i can
do whatever i want with it, for 10 yrs, for a million years. but
for HDB and other leased-properties, you can pay however much you
want, but at the end of the 99yrs, or 999yrs, the government will
still take it back.
and 99 yrs might not necessarily means 99 yrs also. if the
government needs the land for developments such as roads, rails,
you lan lan also must return your property to the government.
end of the day, your property is yours to enjoy, but not yours
to keep.
and so what if you readjust the price of flats to 90k? under HDB
law, only 1 person can own a flat at any one time. so those who
already have a house would still have a house, while those who are
just starting out can easily buy a house.
this ensures that those who needs a house will have a house.
also, hdb is suppose to be a public provider of housing, not
merely a real estate developer like capitaland etc. it should not
be profit-oriented.
You are right that they are all part of the government. And
indeed, 99 yrs might not mean 99 yrs too. The same goes for condo
as well. Remember the case where SLA paid only $1 for a huge slice
of a condo's carpark space?
If the price is readjusted to 90k, I wouldn't be sure of the
resultant effects, although it is true that 1 person or 1 couple
can only own 1 flat at any one time. Perhaps people would want to
change house every 5 years by buying from HDB given the current
affluence?
HDB indeed should not be profit-oriented. Fact is, it's hard to
even get a flat at recent BTOs, even at $300k and 90% being
allocated to first timers. It has to boil down to the fact that
there a crunch of new BTOs earlier. A poor planning by HDB planners
at that time on hindsight.
