MND to ramp up building of rental flats: Khaw

[mr funny]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...40962,00.html?

Published May 30, 2011

MND to ramp up building of rental flats: Khaw

Flats need to be built quickly 'by tens of thousands', minister adds

By EMILYN YAP


(SINGAPORE) The Ministry of National Development (MND) is looking to increase the supply of rental flats for single parents.

This comes shortly after it unveiled plans to speed up the construction of build-to-order (BTO) flats for young couples.

The move to step up the supply of rental flats was announced yesterday when National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan spoke at a forum for youth at Woodlands Community Club.

'It's quite clear in my mind, we need to ramp up the building of rental flats as quickly as we can. Not just by a few thousand - actually, we need to build by tens of thousands - and the earlier, the better,' he said.

Speaking on the plight of single mothers and divorcees, Mr Khaw said that some cannot afford to purchase their own flats and have to rely on rental flats.

But there are not enough of these to go around, he said.

There are about 45,000 rental flats in Singapore today. In the last three years, HDB registered an average of 2,700 rental applications per year.

The issue of supply aside, there are also Housing and Development Board (HDB) rules that keep some single parents from renting flats. The rules are 'not frivolous', Mr Khaw said.

He did not elaborate on whether changes to some of these policies could be on the cards.

The more important thing is to solve the under-supply of rental flats first, Mr Khaw told the media. How fast that can be done 'depends on industry capacity, which I need to study'.

HDB is already rolling out more BTO flats this year. Last Friday, it said that it will increase the number of new BTO units to 25,000 from 22,000.

It will also start building flats in anticipation of demand. Under the original BTO system, the construction tender is called only after there are buyers for at least 70 per cent of the flats launched.

In 2009 and 2010, HDB launched about 9,000 and 16,100 BTO flats respectively.

Since taking over the helm at MND, Mr Khaw has put young couples, divorcees with children and low income families on the ministry's priority list.

[mr funny]

http://www.straitstimes.com/PrimeNew...ry_674040.html

May 30, 2011

Khaw: Tens of thousands of rental flats needed

By Grace Chua


SINGAPORE needs to build 'tens of thousands' of subsidised rental flats to meet the demand for them - the sooner, the better, said new National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday.

'For rental flats, we are studying, but all I know is we need to build more... How fast we can meet the supply - that depends on industry capacity, which I need to study,' he said on the sidelines of a youth forum.

He cited neither a timeframe nor figures, but said it would take 'several years' to meet the shortfall.

The minister's remarks come hot on the heels of an announcement on Friday that the Housing Board will build 25,000 new flats this year so young couples can own their own homes, and that this pace of building may continue into next year.

He noted that first-time buyers are one group with urgent housing needs, another being single mothers or divorcees who need subsidised rental flats.

Tenants pay between $26 and $275 a month for these flats, depending on flat type. There are about 45,000 such public rental flats here.

It was announced in Parliament in January that the Government was planning to build 5,000 more rental flats by next year, while keeping the proportion of rental flats at between 5 per cent and 7 per cent of the total number of HDB flats, so as to encourage home ownership.

During the Budget debate two months later, then National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan further announced that the average waiting time for public rental flats would be shortened to eight months this year, down from 21 months in 2008.

These were aimed at addressing unhappiness on the ground over the long wait for rental flats.

Private operators such as EM Services, allowed to rent out some HDB flats slated for redevelopment at market rates, also raised eyebrows, with some observers saying such flats should be rented to the needy as a matter of priority.

Ministry of National Development figures indicate that there were 2,300 rental flat applications each in 2009 and last year, down from 3,700 in 2008. Families made up 83 per cent of these applicants last year, and singles, the remaining 17 per cent under the Joint Singles Scheme.

Some 44 per cent of applicant households earned below $800 each a month, while the rest earned between $801 and $1,500 a month.

Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and for the Environment, welcomed Mr Khaw's comments.

'I'm glad to hear that he is going to ramp up the numbers,' she said.

She said 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the requests for help that she gets at her Meet-the-People sessions are from those who need public rental flats, and that these include divorcees, those deserted by their children, and those whose flats are to be repossessed.

Madam Rokiah Sulaiman, a 45-year-old mother of two whose husband is in prison, also welcomed the possibility of getting a rental flat sooner.

She does not work because of health problems and has just moved with her teenage son into her mother's one-room Chinatown rental flat, which is also home to her sister.

This means Madam Rokiah is, for the moment, living apart from her other child, a six-year-old daughter who attends school in Woodlands and hence stays with an aunt.

Madam Rokiah hopes to get a rental flat in Marsiling, nearer to her daughter's school. She said: 'I want to live with my kids, but the HDB said a lot of people are asking for rental flats, so I have to wait.'


Rental flats in numbers

45,000
Number of HDB rental flats. They include one- and two-room flats and cost $26 to $275 a month to rent.

5,000
New rental flats to be made available by next year.

8 months
Targeted waiting time for a rental flat this year. The average waiting time was 21 months in 2008.

2,300
Number of applications for rental flats each year, in 2009 and last year.

$1,500
Monthly income ceiling of applicant households.