One of the biggest issues in the coming General Election (GE) is the housing problem in Singapore. To be more exact, the sky high (and still going upwards) prices of homes in Singapore.
In Singapore, it is normal for people to take a 25-30 year housing loan before they can buy their own homes. In an early strike at the issue, the opposition Workers' Party (WP) has made a call for the Singapore government to lower the sale of land prices for housing. In their election manifesto, they said that if the price of the land that was sold was lower, housing developers (including the HDB) would have less need/excuse to charge high prices for the flats built.
It is a populist call which the Singapore government could have ignored but they choose not to. To their credit, they chose to defend against the call from the WP. In a show of how NOT to do it, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan attacked the WP manifesto saying that it was 'irresponsible'. Mr. Mah say that lowering land cost as a way to reduce new housing prices is tantamount to raiding Singapore's reserves. Explaining further, he said that all land was sold at prices set by the Chief Valuer, and the land sale proceeds go into the Singapore reserves.
There’s one problem with his argument. Few Singaporeans will care for it. Mr. Mah’s argument cut no ice with Singaporeans and the simple reason is this; Singapore has powerful reserves. As of 2010, the Official Foreign Reserves stands at US$225,754.2 million. It is not as if Singapore has a huge debt to pay off; we are over US$225 million in the black!
So would Singaporeans be more concerned about the rising housing prices or more concerned about “less” money going into the Singapore reserves? I have no doubt about the answer, do you?
4 comments:
Buy their own homes? Freehold or leased?
I tot HDB are 99 years leased homes from PAP government?
So in general many local singaporeans are actually paying for the rental licience...and only hold it for whatever duration of that 99 years lease.
And people still believe in these lies from the PAP and its cronies.
actually, our reserves are US$225 billion. not million
If I am WP, I would even go one step further and propose that all HDB leasehold shall be converted into freehold if voters were to give them the go ahead.
If one is paying close to half a million for a pigeonhole, there is really no reason why it should still be on lease.
PAP can be liken to only know how to deceive Singaporeans, isn't it ?
To anon 20/4;
I wish. Our reserves are US$225 million. You can check the figures on the MAS website.
To Alan Wong;
That's a terrible idea. If all HDB leasehold are converted into freehold, then prices will shoot up. If the price for a 99 year lease is half a million, imagine what the price will be if it is freehold?
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