HDB tweaking policies to help first-time buyers

[mr funny]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...68740,00.html?

Published March 4, 2011

YESTERDAY IN PARLIAMENT

HDB tweaking policies to help first-time buyers

More BTO flats - 14,000 - to be offered in first half

By UMA SHANKARI


THE Housing & Development Board (HDB) will tweak several policies to make it easier for first-timers and lower income households to buy a flat, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said yesterday.

HDB will roll out more flats in the first half of this year. It will offer 14,000 flats under the build-to-order (BTO) system in the first six months of 2011, up from the 11,000 BTO flats planned previously.

The upcoming projects will have a good geographical spread in estates such as Jurong West, Sengkang, Punggol, Sembawang, Hougang, Tampines and Pasir Ris. For the full year, 22,000 flats are planned if demand is sustained. This is unchanged from the previous estimated supply.

In addition to the increased supply, the BTO application process has also been shortened from nine weeks to four weeks. With this, flat applicants will know if they stand a good chance of selecting a flat in one BTO exercise before the close of the next exercise. HDB will also increase the visibility of upcoming BTO launches, from the current one month to 2-3 months ahead.

Mr Mah announced the changes in Parliament yesterday in response to concerns from Members of Parliament (MPs) that with the run-up in HDB resale prices in 2010, public housing was becoming unaffordable for many.

'I know that Singaporeans, especially first-timers, are concerned that flat prices have risen too fast, due to the sharp economic recovery. With the measures that I have outlined, first-timers will be able to get on the first rung of the housing ladder,' he said.

Mr Mah also unveiled new measures to give low- to middle-income households more choices of affordable flats. The monthly household income ceiling for three-room standard flats in non-mature estates has also been raised to $5,000 from $3,000 previously.

HDB has also increased the supply of two-room and three-room flats by 37 per cent to 4,800 units in 2011.

The agency will also give families who earn up to $2,250 a month even more help to buy their first flat.

Currently, first-time homebuyers get a subsidy when they buy a new flat. In addition, households with a monthly income of $5,000 and below also get added help in the form of an Additional CPF Housing Grant.

Yesterday, Mr Mah announced another grant - the Special CPF Housing Grant, or SHG - for households who make up to $2,250 a month. They can now look forward to the new SHG of between $5,000 and $20,000 if they choose to buy a new two- or three-room standard flat in non-mature estates from HDB.

MND also announced that the pace of HDB's home improvement programme (HIP) will be boosted. The HIP, which offers residents the chance to improve the interiors of HDB flat, was started in 2007.

The number of HIP projects has doubled from 7 to 14 over the last two years. HDB will increase it to 28 projects next year and 35 projects per year by 2014.

The is part of government's plan to spend $10 billion to upgrade homes and rejuvenate estates over the next 10 years.

Under the various upgrading programmes like the HIP, the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme and the Lift Upgrading Programme, the government will spend up to $55,000 per flat. In 2011 alone, around 50,000 flat owners will benefit from these programmes.

[mr funny]

http://www.straitstimes.com/PrimeNew...ry_641099.html

Mar 4, 2011

Parliament

Buying HDB flats: Easier, more affordable

Shorter wait, higher income ceiling, more flats to choose from

By Esther Teo


MORE low- to middle-income home buyers will have a chance to buy affordable three-room flats, as part of sweeping changes to the Housing Board's (HDB) build-to-order (BTO) scheme.

There will also be more flats of all sizes on offer in the first half of the year, and buying them will be a breezier affair with processing time cut by half.

Announcing this in Parliament yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that the monthly household income ceiling for three-room standard flats will be raised from the current $3,000 to $5,000.

The change will be implemented starting with the recent BTO flat launches in Sengkang and Bukit Panjang, but will also apply to all non-mature estates such as Bukit Batok, Yishun, Jurong West, Woodlands, Punggol and Hougang.

This will provide first-time buyers with a wider choice of affordable flats, said Mr Mah. According to the latest census, about 20 per cent of resident households in Singapore have a monthly income of between $3,000 and $5,000.

'These people have previously been forced to buy a four-room or larger flat, which may be stretching their budget, especially considering the substantial price difference between three-room and four-room BTO flats,' said Mr Adam Tan from real estate agency PropNex.

Standard three-room flats made up between 8 per cent and 18 per cent of total flats in BTO projects launched over the past six months.

Mr Mah said that with the changes, the number of three-room flats on offer this year will be raised by 50 per cent - some 1,200 flats - to cater to a larger group of buyers.

The HDB said yesterday that it will ask applicants who have already applied for a flat to reconsider their choice of flat type in view of the revised income ceiling, should they qualify.

And those who change their minds can do so for free, it added.

The change is part of the Government's effort to make HDB flats more accessible and affordable to first-time buyers.

Many of the MPs who spoke during the five-hour Budget debate on National Development Ministry (MND) issues yesterday underlined the need for HDB to meet the needs of this group.

Responding to these MPs, Mr Mah also announced that the supply of BTO flats for the first half of this year will be ramped up by a further 3,000 to reach 14,000 islandwide. The total number of BTO flats planned for this year, however, remains the same at a record 22,000 units.

And to quicken the flat-buying process, the HDB has also halved the processing time from the launch of a BTO project to the selection of flats by a successful applicant to four weeks from the current nine, starting from this month's BTO launch.

Flat applicants will therefore be informed of the success of their current application, and their queue number, before the launch of the next BTO. BTO launches occur nearly monthly now.

This improves the process because many buyers will not need to apply for multiple projects and hold different queue numbers, noted Mr Mah.

The streamlining of the process, however, will mean HDB will have to conduct eligibility checks and the balloting for queue numbers concurrently, he added.

This will result in some inconvenience for applicants who receive ballot numbers but are later found ineligible to buy a flat.

Mr Mah also said the BTO process will be further improved by increasing the visibility of upcoming BTO launches.

They will now be announced two to three months ahead, instead of one month, to allow buyers to make more informed decisions.

Most industry players welcomed the changes, some of which had also been suggested by MPs. Mr Lim Biow Chuan (Marine Parade GRC) and Dr Lim Wee Kiak (Sembawang GRC), for example, had both championed a shorter BTO process.

Mr Logan Ang, 22, who works in the financial industry earning about $3,200 a month, is a first-time buyer who would benefit from these changes. He is considering a three-room flat as it is a smaller financial commitment.

He and his wife, a housewife, now live with his parents in Jurong.

'Buying a house is a huge financial commitment and with these new rules we don't have to be that worried, we can buy a three-room flat first then possibly upgrade later.

'The money saved can be used for other things. Maybe with this, some of us in this bracket won't have to put off starting a family,' he added.

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Changes at a glance

NEW BUILD-TO-ORDER (BTO) FLATS

# Income ceiling for buyers of three-room standard flats in non-mature estates raised from $3,000 to $5,000.

# 14,000 new flats to be launched by mid-year, up from 11,000 announced earlier.

# Application time cut from nine weeks to four weeks

LOW-INCOME HOUSEHOLDS

# Special Housing Grant of up to $20,000 to help them buy new flats.

# Waiting time for a rental flat cut from 21 months to eight months.

UPGRADING

# Home Improvement Programme to be accelerated.

# More lifts to be upgraded.

# Town centres to be rejuvenated.

[mr funny]

http://www.straitstimes.com/PrimeNew...ry_641114.html

Mar 4, 2011

Parliament

A struggle to find the 'sweet spot', says Mah

By Esther Teo, Property Reporter


NATIONAL Development Minister Mah Bow Tan yesterday acknowledged that the Government struggles to find the supply sweet spot for housing.

That is not without good reason, he made clear, as he took the House back to the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis to show how volatile housing demand has been.

He was responding to Mr Liang Eng Hwa (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) who asked if the Government could have anticipated the strong demand for flats from the recent surge in immigration and rolled out launches sooner.

Mr Mah said that an oversupply - which occurred less than 10 years ago - was just as bad as an undersupply, and the challenge was to find the sweet spot: not too much, not too little.

'HDB has to take into account market conditions and sentiments when it plans its building programme. In our desire to meet the strong housing demand today, we should not forget lessons of the past regarding the volatility of demand,' he cautioned.

Flat demand literally vanished overnight when the Asian Financial Crisis struck in 1997. The Auditor-General expressed concerns about the high cost of holding vacant flats and HDB had to take drastic steps to clear its surplus stock. It reduced prices, converted large flats to smaller ones and held walk-in selections of unsold flats.

Some homeowners also paid a price for the oversupply then.

'Members may recall residents in near-empty new HDB blocks in Sembawang, Jurong West and Sengkang expressing their concern about safety and theft. A news article in 2001 even called these precincts 'Ghost Towns',' he said.

HDB cut prices to fill the blocks. Existing owners became unhappy that their new neighbours paid less for their homes and some petitioned for a discount.

Low prices also meant that those in mortgage arrears had difficulty selling off their flats, and many more were in negative equity.

He emphasised that the supply of new flats was low in past years not because supply was constrained but because demand was weak. For example, even when HDB offered relatively fewer flats in 2006, about 1,100 remained unsold.

'In fact, there were flats that were not taken up every year in the past decade. In 2003 and 2004, we even had to cancel some build-to-order projects because of low application or take-up,' Mr Mah said.

It was also not feasible to peg the number of new flats built to the number of marriages per year. The take-up of new flats was often lower than the number of marriages as some newlywed couples either held off buying a flat or looked to the private or resale market.

[wenqing]

http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/02...too-expensive/
Are HDB flats too expensive?






Are HDB flats becoming unaffordable for many Singaporeans? (Image courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board.)


Affordable public housing remains one of the most contentious and hotly-debated issues in land-strapped Singapore, results of a survey commissioned by Reach, the government’s feedback arm, show.


Despite general satisfaction with the government’s policies at home and abroad, the rising cost of HDB flats continues to worry Singaporeans, with 66 per cent of respondents registering government attempts to keep the cost of living affordable as an area of concern.

While over three quarters, 76 per cent, felt that the supply of flats was adequate, just over half did not think housing was being kept affordable for most.


Although the survey was carried out prior to the latest introduction of cooling measures, the fact that house prices continue to rise, although the numbers of transactions is slowing, means that low-income households will still find it a struggle to cope with the rising cost of living.


Wait to Buy Private Homes


Meanwhile, HDB owners aspiring to upgrade to private property were urged to wait by Mah Bow Tan, Minister for National Development. “Housing prices are rather high now… if you wait for a while, you might find more affordable properties,”

Mr Mah was quoted as saying, citing the expectation of rising interest rates and an increase in the supply of private properties as factors in curbing property prices.


The Straits Times reported that private home prices moved up 17.6 per cent last year, after rising just 1.6 per cent the year before.


Non-landed property, which includes condominium units popular with HDB owners looking to upgrade, rose 14 per cent.


The newest property measures –- including high sellers’ stamp duties and lowered loan limits for second mortgages –- are, said Mah “meant to stabilise the market so that prices can increase at a more steady rate.”


However, for those without hard cash readily available, they do put a large obstacle in the path of those who aspire to own private property.


For the most authoritative and comprehensive listing of properties for sale or rent, go to www.iProperty.com.sg


For more property news, real estate reports and celebrity home features, head to www.iproperty.com.sg/resources



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