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Parliament opened recently with the government vowing to tackle pressing bread-and-butter issues like housing head on.
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan said he will prioritise housing needs for newly-weds cum first-time homeowners earning less than S$10,000 and families with monthly household incomes of below S$1,500 in the first two years.
He also said he will build more than 50,000 HDB flats in the first two years.
On top of that, he has also assured citizens that new Build-To-Order (BTO) launches will remain affordable.
Indeed, Minister Khaw is walking the talk. He has priced new BTO launches for four and five-room flats in Sengkang, Tampines, Jurong West, Bukit Panjang and Yishun at S$217,000 and S$274,000 respectively.
Many see this as a move to bring prices back to a more sustainable level.
In addition, he has promised to ramp up supply of rental flats for families with household incomes of below S$1,500 per month.
This includes opening the disused workers' quarters at the former Tanjong Pagar railway station.
Root issue needs to be addressed
While I laud the Minister’s recent moves, more can be done.
Singapore is experiencing a widening income gap - the middle and lower-income groups have been lagging behind.
In fact, Singapore has the second highest Gini coefficient of 42.5 among 38 countries with very high human development, according to the 2009 United Nations Development Report.
Thus, it is clear that not everyone has benefitted from the government’s grow-at-all-cost strategy and attention towards GDP.
Without ensuring that the income gap is addressed, the lower-rung in society will forever be at the mercy of inflation and property prices soaring ahead of their earning power.
Therefore, I would urge the government to look at a more wholesome solution rather than housing per say.
There needs to be minimum wage for blue-collar workers and support for the “Singaporeans first” hiring policy.
Singles neglected
I would also urge his Ministry to allow singles to buy BTO flats, although the income ceiling has been raised from S$3,000 to S$5,000.
Not all singles can afford the exorbitant cash-over-valuation prices (COV) in the resale market.
Moreover, singles have also contributed by paying taxes and defended the country by doing National Service.
Their contributions to the nation should not go unnoticed.
Capital gains tax on PRs
Thirdly, he needs to impose capital gains tax on permanent residents (PRs) to prevent them from selling HDB flats to Singaporeans and making a profit before returning back to their homelands.
Our public housing and other policies should always put Singaporeans first and not put them at a disadvantage.
If not, all that talk will simply be just that – talk.
The loopholes need to be plugged.
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Reader Comments (2 comments)
HDB valuation keeps spiral up as it tag with last transacted price, which contain COV. New sellers simply add new COV, which is standard in forms of $xxk, irregardless of new valuation already factor in from the last transacted price. To really cap the increase of resale price, just simply look at the valuation policy. Carefully regulate HDB valuation definitely do great help to prevent HDB old 5 room flat skyrocket to $1m mark 1 day. Increase valuation not only drive up resale price, but also increase BTO flat where HDB claim it suffers lost as a result of huge market subsidized. It's a good news to current owners as he see increase in his assets. But are we really benefits at the bottom line ? Yes we'll gain by selling at higher price but offset when buy at premium too. Will our next generation better off ? or will they become life-long mortgage slave apart from facing increase cost of living ? We need to go back real basic, no frill policy. HDB new hawker center is a good start.
Good to see that Mr Khaw has responded. This is one of the broken social gears that need to be fixed in Singapore. It may not just be the aquarium housing that is having problem. It could be the whole system, the pump, water, food, etc...I share the writer's sentiment. There shd be a two tier purchasing and selling mechanism to protect the interest of original Singaporeans. After all, these social benefits were accumulated from the toil of Singaporeans years gone by.