Tag Archives: Housing and Development Board

I APPLAUD the Government’s recent efforts to curb private property speculation and I believe it is the right direction to take.

However, allowing cash over valuation (COV) for HDB resale flats to continue rising, based on the belief that market forces will eventually self-correct the currently high COV, is as good as believing in the efficient market theory.

There is a need for certain restrictions on COV before home buyers start using COV as a barometer of market sentiments, and an unsustainable price bubble builds up in the HDB market. This may ultimately spill over and affect the private property market as well, resulting in overrall asset price instability. This is the last thing we want on the path to economic recovery.

Ivan Phang

Source : Straits Times – 28 Sep 2009

I LIVE in a five-room Housing Board flat. Each month, I pay $63 in service and conservancy charges and $75 for parking.

So for $138 a month, I get: A space in an open surface carpark at the foot of my block that gets bird poo every now and then – or a spot in the covered multi-storey carpark a few blocks away. The common corridor floor is washed once a month, and the bin chute is fogged several times a year. My estate is pretty clean.

But like thousands of HDB residents, I often wonder how my service and conservancy charge (S&CC) payments are being spent, how they could be kept low, and what the town council does to make sure it gets enough bang for my bucks.

The Town Council Management Report, which will debut next year, will, unfortunately, not make me any the wiser. Details of this report were announced last Wednesday, after calls last year for closer scrutiny of town councils. Town councils drew flak last year after news broke that some had invested long-term sinking funds in instruments that turned toxic. Continue reading →