The government is planning to raise the current S$8,000 income ceiling for buying new flats under the Build-to-Order (BTO) scheme, according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
He said when the S$8,000 cap was raised to S$10,000 for the slightly more upper-class Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) last year, the government also considered raising the income ceiling for BTO flats and resale flat subsidies.
“But we haven’t done it yet, because the property market was very hot and we didn’t want to add more pressure on the BTO flats.”
He believes that with the anticipated increase of wages in Singapore’s tight labour market this year, the government plans to “revisit” the income ceiling issue “after the effects of the current round of (housing) measures become clear.”
According to Mr. Lee, who spoke as Secretary-General of the People’s Action Party (PAP), he acknowledged that middle-class Singaporeans were “one group which perhaps we have not spent so much time talking about”. He added that they may feel “left out from the discussion”, because most of the programmes of the government focus on lower-income Singaporeans.
“I can understand their anxieties. They have some. They’re financially better off. They have more resources than the lower income Singaporeans but they have high aspirations for themselves, also for their children and also, in some cases, they have significant commitments.”
Source : PropertyGuru – 3 May 2011