ALJUNIED and Jurong town councils will raise their monthly service and conservancy (S&C) charges from April for the first time in five years. They have cited higher maintenance and operating costs - particularly for the numerous new lifts in the older estates - as reasons for the hike. Charges will go up by between 50 cents and $4.50 for Singapore homeowners, depending on the type of flat. This will...
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I REFER to Sunday's report, 'Property agents call for curbs on subletting'. It was mentioned that the new measures taken by the Government to reduce speculation may not be sufficient to keep prices of resale flats in check, since prices may still be driven up by those who keep flats to rent out rather than to occupy. I believe a simple solution is to limit the number of HDB owners who can rent out their...
Senior Minister of State for the Ministry of National Development & Ministry of Education Grace Fu said the recent announcement to extend a second loan to more HDB flat buyers is to help manage their mortgage obligations and not to encourage property speculation. "The objective of allowing a second loan regardless of whether it's upgrade or downgrading, it's really to allow some families to make...
The government has sharpened the differentiation in housing benefits enjoyed by citizens and permanent residents (PRs), but some PRs have said it is still not enough for them to take up citizenship. And as revealed in Parliament on Friday, households comprising one citizen and one PR will now have to pay more to buy an HDB flat. A new quota for non-Malaysian PRs has also been implemented to prevent...
HDB resale flat owners must occupy their flats for at least three years before they can sell them. The move is to further curb speculation in the HDB resale market. But the board's also extending help to genuine buyers by revising its second concessionary loan policy. An HDB flat is meant for residents to live in not for short-term profit. It's a message that housing authorities have repeatedly stressed...
The Lease Buyback Scheme will be enhanced starting April 1 to include elderly households who previously owned four-room or bigger flats. It was launched a year ago to help elderly household owners currently living in three-room and smaller flats unlock the value of their homes. Under the scheme, the elderly will continue to live in their homes, but sell the tail-end of their lease back to the government...
The Minimum Occupation Period (MOP) for the resale of non-subsidised HDB flats has been revised upwards to three years. Announcing the change in Parliament on Friday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the objective of such a move was to reinforce the idea that HDB flats are for owner-occupation. He stressed that flats are not meant for speculation or short-term profit. And with the...
The Housing and Development Board said that one in two applicants did not book a flat when invited to do so under the Build-To-Order (BTO) system. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan revealed this figure in Parliament on Friday. He added that the high application rates for recent BTO launches do not reflect true demand for flats. Mr Mah noted that 22 per cent of the applications for BTO projects in...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has received 11 bids for the sale of a site in Sengkang at Compassvale Bow. The 19,000 square metre site is designated for an executive condominium under the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS). The top bid came from Opal Star and Lum Chang Building Contractors who offered S$193 million for the site. That translates to about S$315 per square foot. Opal Star is a...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) is looking into supply and demand management measures to ease the shortage of parking lots in some estates. About 10 per cent of HDB carparks are currently unable to meet local parking demand, due to changes in the demographic profiles and car ownership patterns. Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Dr Maliki Osman said this in Parliament, in response...