http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/sub/...40740,00.html?

Published June 17, 2011

Revising BTO income ceiling has its justification: Khaw

By UMA SHANKARI


(SINGAPORE) National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday said that the rising age of first-time applicants for new HDB flats justifies revising the income ceiling.

Writing in his blog, Mr Khaw said that first-time applicants who applied under HDB's Fiance-Fiancee Scheme for build-to-order (BTO) projects launched in May had a median age of 27 years.

And other first-timers - such as those already married - had a median age of 34.

His observations come after former National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said in May that the income ceiling for BTO flats could be raised to $10,000 from $8,000 at present.

In a blog entry titled 'Know Our Customers', Mr Khaw started off by writing: 'The first rule of good customer service is to know our customers: Who are they? What are their needs? In my first BTO launch last month, nearly 14,000 Singaporeans applied for 4,000 units. I asked HDB for their profile.'

He found that 65 per cent of the applicants were first-timers - that is, applicants who have never bought an HDB flat directly from HDB nor taken a CPF Housing Grant.

The breakdown also showed that the proportion of applicants making a repeat BTO attempt has gone down to 45 per cent from 60 per cent in the previous quarter.

'I take some comfort that the situation seems to be improving. But we have much work to do still,' Mr Khaw said.

He also noted that 14 per cent of the applicants had applied for three or more previous BTO exercises in the last one year. Of these applicants, a third had the chance to select a flat but did not do so for their own reasons.

However, he is conscious of the frustrations and anxiety of those who did not have a chance to select at all. He said: 'I am ramping up BTO launches to try to ease this problem.'