Khaw shares
ideas to lower prices of HDB flats
One suggestion for debate:
insist that owners must sell homes back to HDB
TWO days after signalling
a critical rethink of the role and nature of public housing,
Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan yesterday threw up
a few suggestions as to how exactly policy may change. --
ST FILE PHOTO: YEN MENG JIIN
By POON CHIAN
HUI
TWO days after signalling a
critical rethink of the role and nature of public housing, Minister
for National Development Khaw Boon Wan yesterday threw up a few
suggestions as to how exactly policy may change.
Shortening leases, extending the minimum occupation
period or even reinstating a pre-1971 rule that owners can sell HDB
flats only back to the Housing Board are all solutions up for
discussion, which may help to lower the prices of new flats.
The minimum occupation period, introduced to reduce
speculation, is the shortest period before the whole flat can be
rented out or sold. It now stands at five years.
The last suggestion would mean an HDB flat owner
could sell his flat not on the market, but only to the HDB, at the
price he bought it at, with perhaps some interest, said Mr
Khaw.
These are "reasonable suggestions" raised by MPs
and the public which he will discuss with various groups, including
the public.
He said this yesterday in relation to his
Parliament pledge last Friday of making new flats cheaper by some
30 per cent, with those in non-mature estates to cost about four
years of one's salary, down from 5.5 years now.
In Parliament, he also said it would be good to
re-examine some old assumptions, including that of HDB flats being
treated as appreciating assets.
At the heart of this transition is the impact of
trade-offs between distinct groups, like home owners and home
buyers, who may have differing views and needs.
"How do we make sensible trade-offs which are
sustainable?" Mr Khaw asked yesterday.
"Most people actually do not have a housing
problem. But a minority do, and they are serious housing problems,"
he said.
"So we need to tackle them, but in a way that is
not at the expense of home owners."
A group that will feel the sting of dipping prices
are those relying on rental income. Their tenants usually comprise
people who cannot afford a new flat.
This is why the Government cannot keep building new
flats, Mr Khaw said. "If I keep on meeting new demand, I am
actually hurting the many home owners who now rent out their own
properties. And there are many."
Some 40,000 entire HDB flats are being sublet; up
to another 40,000 owners rent out rooms.
Rather, what he hopes to do is to engineer a "soft
landing".
Mr Chris Koh, director of property agency Chris
International, said an extension of the minimum occupation period
may help reduce property speculation as it discourages those who
are more interested in making money from flat sales and rental
income. Instead, people who intend to stay for the long haul are
more likely to buy the flats.
Chesterton Suntec International director of
research and consultancy Colin Tan felt shorter leases are unlikely
to work. In theory, shortening the leases from 99 years for most
flats means they can be sold more cheaply. "There is likely to be
only a one-time lowering of prices," he said. "The problem can come
back as supply is not keeping up with demand.
Top of the news, The Straits Times, March 11 2013, Pg A1
