HDB’s method of measuring the affordability of homes has come under public scrutiny recently
COMPARING the prices of public flats today with those of years ago is ‘not meaningful’, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said on Thursday.
Speaking on the growing public criticism over home prices recently, Mr Mah emphasised that HDB flat prices are closely monitored to ensure affordability.
‘We’ll keep the prices such that they are pegged to the income, so this is how we manage affordability. We make sure that the prices do not exceed the 30 per cent benchmark,’ he said.
This benchmark refers to ensuring that a household pays less than 30 per cent of its monthly income to service a home loan. In fact, within each buyer’s income brackets, expenditure on housing is about 20 per cent or so, said Mr Mah.
As for comparing prices with those of 20 years ago, ‘those are not meaningful comparisons’.
‘If we did that, we’d be comparing many things that we did 20 years ago, do we want to go back 20 years?’ he said. Continue reading
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