The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will reduce the supply of new three-room and larger flats by 18 per cent, from 22,600 units in 2013 to about 18,600 in 2014. In a statement on Monday, it said the adjustment is timely as a better balance has already been struck between the supply of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats and the demand from families for them. At the same time, HDB will increase the supply...
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New housing policies are showing results, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. In his ministry's blog post on Thursday, Mr Khaw said ramping up the construction of Build-To-Order flats, and introducing the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS) and Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (PPHS) are meant to help the young meet their aspirations as soon as they are ready to do so. Mr Khaw said...
The latest survey of HDB residents who were offered the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) showed continued strong support for the scheme. Of the 628 households from five projects who participated in the survey, 87 percent expressed support for SERS. Most of the residents surveyed were happy that SERS allowed them to continue living in the same estate close to their long-time...
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will be building more two-room flats to allow more singles to realise their dreams of owning their homes. Authorities will also continue to push out a steady stream of studio apartments to help the seniors right-size, if they wish, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan. For families, the authorities will begin to reduce the supply of three-room,...
Property agents expect larger executive condominium (EC) units to be a tough sell following the implementation of the 30 per cent Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) on December 10. Seven executive condominium projects were launched for sale in 2013. They offer a total of 3,337 units, of which 2,337 have been sold as of December 10. Of the remaining units, agents say 48 per cent are larger 4- and...
With a 30 per cent cap on how much house buyers can borrow to finance their executive condominiums (ECs), analysts expect developers to release more smaller-sized units for sale. However, sales for EC units are expected to slow down with the measures, especially since December is traditionally a lull period for the property market. Authorities have capped the Mortgage Servicing Ratio (MSR) for...
The government has introduced three measures to refine its Executive Condominium Housing Scheme. "The government will implement three measures for Executive Condominium (EC) developments to bring the terms for ECs closer to that for public housing, and help support a stable and sustainable EC market," said a Ministry of National Development (MND) statement on Monday. Reduce EC Cancellation Fee The...
The National Development Ministry will decide soon on an appropriate cap on the percentage of flats that can be sublet to foreigners in HDB blocks, so as to maintain the Singaporean character of the heartlands. Writing in his latest blog entry titled "Preventing Foreigner Enclaves", Minister Khaw Boon Wan said in deciding the cap, he was mindful of the need to balance the impact on those who rely on...
Cash premiums for resale flats fell below S$10,000 in November for the first time since July 2009. According to flash estimates compiled by the Singapore Real Estate Exchange (SRX), the cash-over-valuation (COV) for HDB resale flats reached S$8,000 in November. Meanwhile, 13.1 per cent of HDB resale deals closed below valuation in November, up from October's 8.5 per cent. Sengkang, Choa Chu Kang, and...
The government has said it will be scaling back the supply of new flats in 2014. This year, the HDB launched over 25,000 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats. One property analyst expects BTO flats to be reduced by between 30 and 50 per cent next year. Jeffrey Hong, CEO of GPS Alliance, said "(A gradual) 30 to 50 per cent reduction should be sufficient to test the market from quarter to quarter...