Housing
Desmond Lee defends HDB affordability amid record-breaking million-dollar flat sales
Responding to a Parliamentary question on 6 Aug, National Development Minister Desmond Lee affirmed that most HDB resale flats remain affordable for Singaporeans. This comes amid recent data showing that July saw a record 120 million-dollar HDB flats sold. Lee attributed the price increase to the Covid-19 pandemic disrupting housing supply and cautioned prospective buyers to not expect prices to rise indefinitely, highlighting the cyclical nature of the property market.
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SINGAPORE: On 6 August, National Development Minister Desmond Lee addressed concerns about the affordability of public housing, stating that the majority of Housing Board resale flats remain within reach for Singaporeans.
In response to a parliamentary question filed by Mr Saktiandi Supaat, Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, Mr Lee highlighted that around eight in ten first-timer families who received their resale flat keys in 2023 could service their monthly loan instalments using their Central Provident Fund, with minimal or no cash outlay.
Mr Lee noted that high-priced transactions constitute a small minority of total resale transactions.
He explained that a third of these high-priced transactions involve maisonettes and jumbo flats, which are in limited supply and significantly larger than most other flats.
Furthermore, over 70 per cent of the remaining high-priced units are five-room flats, often located in prime areas, on high floors, or with long remaining leases.
He also mentioned that four-room and smaller flats sold at higher prices represent just 0.5 per cent of all such flats sold in the past two years.
More than half of these high-priced flats boast attractive attributes, such as being in or near the city centre, on high floors, or offering good views.
Mr Saktiandi had asked the minister whether the Government was addressing concerns about housing affordability after HDB resale price records were broken three times in the past three months.
He also inquired if the Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) model was driving up the resale prices of non-PLH flats in more desirable locations and whether the Government was considering imposing a cap on HDB transaction prices.
Desmond Lee: Increase in resale flat prices due to the Covid-19 pandemic
Mr Lee responded that since the PLH model was launched in 2021, there has been no conclusive evidence indicating that it has driven up HDB resale prices in those towns.
However, he noted that it had been less than three years since the model’s introduction, and it would take several more years before the first PLH flats entered the resale market. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely.
Flats under the PLH model come with stricter conditions, including an 8 per cent subsidy clawback upon resale and a 10-year minimum occupation period.
“Housing policy is complex, and any change in one area may have wide-ranging implications in other areas. Our approach to tackling this has been to address the supply and demand imbalances,” he said.
He added that while these measures will take time to take effect, the Government has increased the CPF Housing Grant to provide quick and targeted support to first-time buyers.
Mr Lee explained that the increase in resale flat prices was due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted the Build-To-Order (BTO) building programme and significantly impacted supply.
Concurrently, demand increased as more Singaporeans sought to move out and live independently, a trend accentuated by the pandemic, leading to an imbalance in supply and demand.
“We should not expect housing prices to go up indefinitely”
He assured that the Government has significantly ramped up BTO flat supply, including offering more flats with shorter waiting times.
In 2023, HDB completed about 21,400 flats across 23 housing projects, the highest number of projects and flats completed annually in the last six years, and it is on track to complete another 18,000 flats in 2024.
Mr Lee also mentioned that three rounds of cooling measures have been implemented since December 2021 to temper housing demand in the resale market and encourage greater financial prudence among home buyers.
“While the resale market has risen in the last few years, we should not expect housing prices to go up indefinitely. History has taught us that the property market moves in cycles,” he said.
“In a time of market exuberance, prospective buyers should be extra careful, because those who buy high will also be harder hit when the market eventually comes down.”
July sets new record with 120 million-dollar HDB flats sold
Recent months have seen a significant increase in the number of million-dollar HDB resale flats, raising concerns about housing affordability, especially for Singaporeans facing a high cost of living.
According to data from the government website data.gov.sg, July saw a record-setting 120 million-dollar HDB flats sold, surpassing the previous record of 96 million-dollar HDB resale transactions set in June 2024.
In the first seven months of this year, 539 HDB flats sold for at least S$1 million, compared to 470 such sales in 2023 and 369 in 2022.
In July, a five-room unit in Margaret Drive, Queenstown, sold for approximately S$1.73 million, setting a new record for the most expensive HDB resale flat in Singapore.
This sale exceeded earlier records, including a five-room unit in Boon Tiong Road that sold for S$1.59 million in April and another unit at City Vue @ Henderson, which also sold for S$1.59 million in June.
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It seemed that the housing situation is becoming like HK where the housing is becoming more expensive n it is also important if the profile ot the new owners ot the million dlr flat can b revealed to the public
Have we paid these pap sycophants millions of dollars to lie to us and to insult our intelligence? This is atrocious.
even renting black and white houses are affordable to them. tsk tsk tsk
Affordble? many young married couples taking up huge bank loans or not? what do you think DL?
Ahhhhhh, I got it now, … in the same cold and callous vein as “they’ve” defended the GST increase, handling of the oil spillage, the RidOut fiasco, the race of the previous President, their progressive wage model, that inside is not within, that FT provides opportunities for locals, that the release of all past cabinet records may not lead to better outcomes, the construction of the Founder’s Memorial, the sale of NTUC Income, their astronomical wages, ……… .. ……… .. ……… .. ………
Get the picture !!!
Get the drift !!!
Get the message !!!
Get used to it !!!
For sure Singaporeans will not expect prices to increase indefinitely, but long enough to feel the pain such that they opt to try another party to run the country.
Yeah yeah yeah blah blah blah talk is cheap, what BS re you spouting where is the abilityfor people who earn 1k can buy a flat – Tartman also so,STOP SMOKING PEOPLE,they are no FOOLs
2 primary causes of galloping HDB resale flat prices.
One is the mass importation of new citizens and PR, like 50k to 60k a year.
The other is artificially suppressing building new HDB flats while demand are high.
Look at those years in the 80s and 90s where there’s fewer mass importing new citizens/PR while HDB were building like 40k to 50k new flats, prices of resale HDB flats were low, 4-Rm flats were around $200k and 5-Rm flats were less than $300k.
DL, if you have to give CPF grants and the citizens are paying using their retirement funds, it is unaffordable. Please tell us the criteria you are using to say it is affordable? The grants you are giving will have to be repaid by taxpayers perhaps by another GST increase or other forms of taxation. Please grasp the unaffordability of the affordability you are talking about.You have to ban Real Estate Agents from marketing HDB and PRs must not be allowed to purchase HDB on the resale market. You have to bring down the eligibility of purchasing HDB to a… Read more »
DL , Why are HDB lessees renting out their entire HDB flats? care to address this ? Isn’t HDB flats are for staying ? Why HDB lessees are staying in their luxurious condos or landed homes and allowed to rent out their entire hdb flats? What do you thnik?
We have been told that HDB is making BILLION dollar losses every year. I suggest that Desmond Lee SELLS HDB to a private developer so that we can ensure long term sustainable “affordability”. SAME logic for selling NTUC Income to Allianz.
Desmond IS CORRECT….YOU LOSERS NOT HAPPY CAN ALWAYS GO BUY CONDOM….ERR….I MEAN CONDO.
$2500 per sq ft.
While HDB is way less than $1200 per sq ft.
Both also 99 yrs.
If you losers want to stir trouble…go HongKong loh and stir trouble there about the property prices.
Over there, the CCP would not have that much TOLERANCE FOR TROUBLE MAKERS LIKE YOU LOCAL LOSERS.
Desmond has been way too kind liao!😆😆😆🤣🤣🤣😆😆😆
Did we expect him to say otherwise?
Had he said “unafforable“,
that would be the beginning of the end of his political career
and also of his $,$$$,$$$.$$ celleries !!!
What else can he say?
He can’t say “we won’t do anything about this ‘basic public housing’ high prices, so you all go pound sand.”
So they just keep repeating “HDB is affordable, will continue to be affordable and will remain affordable in the future.”
Fool you once, shame on them.
Fool you again, shame on you.
Fool you continually, you already numbed to shame!
Take the red pill, don’t continue to live in their matrix!
These are bastards of PAP Administration. Being ABLE TO COUGH up monthly LOAN repayments is called affordability.
How CORRUPTED these PAP bastards are.
I go rob a bank, cough up money to rent Ridout Road Bungalows means I can afford.
For Desmond Lers sslary, everything is ‘affordable’. Not so for most of the general working population. For many once we sign on the dotted line we are in hock to CPF and Hdb. Like selling our souls to the devil
Their “affordability” is based on their easy life easy money millions of dollars a year.
Ordinary man on the street hv to steal other’s lunch to get by
Guys guys, let me point out the stupidity of the word Affordable . 1. To Individuals, hdb flat is really up to each to define. If a person feels unaffordable, that’s the truth to him. Someone else maybe inherited millions from dead parents could say, it’s cheap. Not wrong at all. 2. So my point is don’t be fooled by the word. That millionaire says it’s affordable is not wrong because it’s his view. 3. Fact remains the small little flat now is Unaffordable to many, more than ever in SG history. The resale prices have come closer to $2m.… Read more »
The MIW will go all out to preserve the status quo because changing it will threaten their vested interests. SG is a rentier state, with those in power in cahoots with the businesses to exploit the daft in order to fatten themselves.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/07/20/what-you-should-know-about-the-myth-of-the-lazy-poor/144423
“One of the reasons it’s in their interest to do so is because they want to divert the conversation away from scrutiny of a system that they’ve unfairly benefited from, created inequality and poverty in the first place and then try to shift blame onto the individual,”
Ah yes. “Affordable”. Just like premiums in NTUC Income policies after being sold to Allianz. I think if HDB were to be sold to a private developer say … Guocoland, I’m SURE HDB pigeon holes will become even MORE “affordably” priced. MAS would certainly agree since it says that competition will result in “competitive” pricing.
When Public Housing is priced at Market, is it public housing?
This 2 , DL and CCS are the two most useless ministars in gov imo…i Cant bear to see their faces on tv , or hear them speaking…i always switch off…
Aways never veering off their boring cut and paste speeches..
Yet can command mil$ salary ?? What a joke..SG taxpayers have been shortchanged for years!!