Posts tagged: housing
President S R Nathan’s office has been approving the use of past reserves to fund land reclamation projects since 2001 and land acquisition for the Selective En-Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) since 2002.
I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely troubling to have heard about this through a report of an interview, almost 10 years after the fact. Especially when it was claimed that in 2009, it is the first time that the government is tapping into the reserves to fund its budget deficit.
After that report, the state-controlled press became dead silent on this matter.
Leong Sze Hian, from the TOC, writes in his article, “How much of the Reserves has been really used?”:
To the best of my knowledge, I do not think anyone in Singapore knew about the use of the Reserves in the past.
Was this ever disclosed in Parliament or reported in the media?
…
Finally, I am rather surprised that with this explosive disclosure now, no one has asked or answered the obvious question – how much of the Reserves has been used?
This would probably be the furniture that I want in my house. Portable and minimal, most importantly, long lasting.
Mr Mah argued that the opposition party’s calls for cheaper HDB flats were not backed by reasons explaining how it is going to pay for them, reported The Straits Times.
Stressing that “you can’t get something for nothing”, Minister Mah asked, “Is it going to come from education? From health care? From defence? They didn’t say”.
“Or if they say it is not going to come from any of this, are they going to raise taxes? Or are they going to dip into the reserves?” he added.
I’m puzzled. Unless the Minister for Housing is claiming that the HDB flats are priced at cost, I don’t see how it is possible that external sources of funds are required to lower prices! Reducing profit margin of HDB would just mean that it will earn less—no monetary injection from anywhere is required as cost-based pricing would just mean that the price will cover all material costs, and no loss will be incurred.
He called it “an asset devaluation policy”, as opposed to the People’s Action Party’s (PAP) asset enhancement policy. The Minister also explained that the markets are inter-linked and so, reduction in new HDB flat prices will have an impact on the resale flat market.
“Flat market will be devalued, they will be depressed,” he said. “What happens to those people who want to sell, who are in mortgage arrears? It will be negative equity.”
That is not true! Tell me, even if brand-new HDB flats are sold at cost price, are the buyers from the first-hand market and the second-hand flat market identical?
Absolutely not! There are numerous restrictions on who can purchase a first-hand flat from HDB. If the market is identical, the price of brand new flats should be higher than a resale flat (location being equal), but it is not the case due to the number of people who don’t qualify for a first-hand HDB flat.
“The manifesto does not talk about where the money is coming from. I think that is irresponsible.”
I think it is equally irresponsible to be throwing up smoke and mirrors, justifying the burden on young families with 30-year long housing mortgages.
“It is an asset that grows in value over time, with the growth of the economy and also with all the upgrading programmes that the government has put in place,” he said.
When the lease is up? Your right to the “asset” disappears. You are in-effect paying upfront for a 99-year long rent of a HDB flat at an extremely high price. Similarly, with the 10-year long COE in Singapore, nobody treats a car as an asset.
So really, it’s all red-herrings and a straw man (non-)rebuttal.
Singapore’s housing prices inched higher to a fresh record high in the first quarter even as the government implemented measures in a bid to cool the market.
Well done! Good news for the elections.
