MM Lee: HDB will continue to build “affordable” homes
December 14, 2009
During a visit to The [email protected] yesterday, MM Lee Kuan
Yew reassured Singaporeans that HDB will continue to build
“affordable” flats for them even as prices had sky-rocketed over
the last few years, fueled partly by the relentless influx of
foreigners into Singapore.
The prices of HDB resale flats hit a record high in June this
year. An Indonesian PR reportedly paid $653,000 for a 4-room resale
flat in Queenstown.
The [email protected], which towers
over Tanjong Pagar, was built on the site of rental flats. A 5-room
unit there now fetches more than $500,000.
MM Lee, who is the MP for Tanjong Pagar for 54 years recalled
how he used the two Duxton Plain blocks then under construction to
win voters over during the 1963 elections:
“I said: ‘If you vote for me, these will be completed and
will be yours’. If not, the Barisan Sosialis will win and you will
have a bleak future.”
The opposition Barisan Sosialis never had a chance against the
PAP led by MM Lee. Just before the election was called, a massive
security operation “Operation Coldstore” led to the arrests and
detention of several key Barisan leaders such as Lim Chin
Siong.
One of them, a Barisan MP Chia Thye Poh was detained for 32
years without trial making him the longest political prisoner of
conscience in the world.
The rising prices of HDB flats lead to some young couples to
complain that they have been squeezed out of the market. Despite
the huge increase in population between the years 2006 and 2008,
the number of new flats built did not increase by much.
MM Lee offered scant consolation to first-time home buyers with
a “highfalutin” explanation that “if they have confidence in the
country and support the Government, then prices ‘must go up’ as
they have every year since 1965.” The “alternative”, he said is
“grim”.
‘They’ve got to decide if the country is going to go up or
go down. If the country is going to go down, then the economy will
go down, people’s incomes will be down, unemployment will be up and
property values will go down,” he added.
HDB flats are 99-year old leasehold properties whose supply and
therefore prices are entirely determined by the government which
can be increased artificially by either limiting the supply of new
flats or increasing the demand via immigration.
PRs are permitted to purchase resale HDB flats. According to
Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, there were over 90,000 PRs and
20,000 new citizens last year.
In a recent parliamentary session, National Development Minister
Mah Bow Tan said that PRs constitute only 4 per cent of the buyers
of resale flats without quoting any sources.
A release by real estate agency ERA in July this year revealed
that PRs make up 40 per cent of the buyers of resale flats.
Singapore has no opposition in parliament to check on the ruling
party. Policies are often formulated and implemented with little
consultation with the people.
