Executive condos (EC), a hybrid of private and public housing, are now returning to the spotlight. On 26 May, the government launched the 11th EC site since 2010, a plot in Punggol that can house around 720 homes. Meanwhile, Chip Eng Seng and NTUC Choice Homes recorded rapid first-day sales for their Belysa project in the Pasir Ris / Elias Road area. Of the 315 units, 147, comprising three- and...
HDB News
In his last blog post as Health Minister, Mr Khaw Boon Wan said he is determined to make housing and HDB Singaporeans' popular icon again. Recounting his earlier days in the Health Ministry, Mr Khaw said he went to the Health Ministry in 2003 during the SARS period with some trepidation, not quite sure what he was walking into. He will go to National Development Ministry, with even greater...
May I suggest that the Government consider restoring the HDB rental system in a big way. During the early days of this nation, this was how many Singaporeans were adequately housed when they were resettled from kampungs. One-, two- and three-room Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats were rented out to those who could not buy. Why is it that these smaller flats were subsequently either perceived by...
First-time home buyers will welcome the call to raise the income ceiling to qualify for new HDB flats, property analysts said yesterday, a move which will also benefit the sandwiched class. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has hinted that the income ceiling for new build-to-order (BTO) flats could be raised to S$10,000 - from the current S$8,000 - after the General Election. Analysts welcome the...
One set of figures said flats in Aljunied GRC fetched higher resale prices. Now, another set claims flats in Hougang SMC are worth more. Two PhD students have calculated, based on transactions found on the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) website, that flats in Hougang were nearly 4 per cent higher in value than the same type of flats in Aljunied GRC. In contrast, National Development Minister Mah...
he highest price for a five-room flat in April's BTO launches was S$484,000. Will the price of BTO flats reach half a million dollars and more in future? Mah Bow Tan: Depends on the location. If you're building one in Queenstown and in the central area, where land is more expensive, because HDB has to buy the land, it's possible. I think Singaporeans would appreciate that it's not just absolute cost alone...
If the income ceiling for Build-To-Order (BTO) flats is raised, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan will be watching closely one set of figures: The average incomes of applicants for each flat type. Based on those numbers, he will price the flats within a range they can afford. And in the long term, it will be a price range equivalent to a monthly mortgage within one-third of household income. That...
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...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has received overwhelming support on plans to remake estates like Hougang, East Coast and Jurong Lake. Almost all of the 13,000 people surveyed said they were looking forward to the S$1 billion 'Remaking Our Heartland' plans for those areas. The exhibitions for those plans had attracted some 77,000 visitors in January this year. A new town centre, with new...
HDB resale prices went up in the first quarter of this year, but Cash-Over-Valuation (COV) premiums fell during the same period. COV premiums for HDB resale flats dropped 9 per cent, or a S$2,000 decrease, to S$21,000 for the first quarter of this year, according to data from the Housing and Development Board. Observers attributed the decrease to the Government's cooling measures but were divided on...