Tag Archives: HDB News

Are leftover flats really ‘undesirable’?

Posted on 17 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on Are leftover flats really ‘undesirable’?

THIS is a case of ‘picky’ buyers versus ‘undesirable’ flats. Two couples publicly declared they could not find flats despite taking part in many HDB sales exercises.

REJECTION RATESThe HDB refuted this, listing the number of times they had been invited to select flats, but had not done so.

The couples’ response? That the flats were unappealing.

One of the home-seekers, Mr Jayce Ng, 30, was quoted as saying: ‘You can’t blame me for having high expectations and not wanting to live on the second floor when I’ll be living there for the next 10 years – and this is a lifelong investment.’

HDB’s figures show home-seekers like Mr Ng are quite common. In its sale exercises from the first half of this year, an average of 45 per cent of first-time buyers did not pick any of the flats they were offered in non-mature estates.

Are the flats in question truly undesirable? Continue reading →

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Are new flats affordable?

Posted on 17 Oct 2009 | Comments Off on Are new flats affordable?

THE Housing Board has stressed that new flats are affordable because first-time buyers use on average less than 30 per cent of their household income to service their housing loans.

how affordableAs resale flat prices soar, calls for the HDB to revise its $8,000 household income ceiling have been going up too

To shore up this finding, the board has also compared average prices of new flats launched from January to August this year with the median household income of first-time applicants, to show how buyers will spend an average of 22 per cent of their monthly income servicing a 30-year-loan on their properties.

The fundamental problem with this data is that it does not take into account home-seekers who fall through the cracks of the HDB system, argues real estate academic Lum Sau Kim from the National University of Singapore.

As those who feel they cannot afford these homes will not apply for them in the first place, their income data may not show up in the board’s statistics.

Dr Lum says: ‘It is not enough to look at people within the HDB system. We should also be looking at those outside the HDB system and asking why they are not able to access it.’ Continue reading →

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