National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan expects to take three to five years to substantively solve the imbalance between the supply and demand for HDB resale flats.
He said he is confident that resale flat prices will stabilise but stressed that the problem of high prices cannot be solved overnight. He urged Singaporeans to be patient.
Mr Khaw said this in response to questions from reporters on the sidelines of a community event on Sunday.
He said on the supply side, the number of flats will be raised when the new Build-To-Order (BTO) flats are completed.
As for demand, he said the property cooling measures implemented by the government have removed “unnecessary demand” from speculators.
He urged those who already with a property to hold back on dipping into the resale flat market, as prices are currently too high.
On Friday, figures from the HDB showed prices rising by 2.9 per cent in the second quarter of this year, nearly twice that of the previous quarter.
The HDB also stopped releasing the median Cash-Over-Valuation (COV). Mr Khaw said the figure is “misleading” and cannot be used to judge if COV has gone up or come down.
He added that the median figure is dependent on the house type and location of flats that are sold, which can change from month to month.
Instead, the HDB will continue to offer a breakdown of COV according to location and house type, which Mr Khaw said, is the information Singaporeans need when they decide on whether to buy a home.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 24 Jul 2011