Parliament to start debate on Singapore Public Housing
Public housing availability and pricing will be discussed in the Singaporean Parliament on Monday (Feb 6).
On Facebook on the 30th of January, Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann announced that National Development Minister Desmond Lee’s proposed solution to public housing will be presented in the next discussion.
Sim said they would be open to “constructive comments and proposals” on how to assist Singaporeans achieve their goals of home ownership, in addition to refuting “spurious charges.”
Parliamentary member for the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Leong Mun Wai, who does not represent a constituency, announced on Facebook in early January that he had lodged a motion to evaluate the government’s regulatory frameworks, including the costing of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, which he contended should not contain land costs.
In his words, “I will be putting forward some genuine policy alternatives for discussion rather than historical cost pricing, and I can tell you that none of those policies will lead to a ‘raiding of our reserves.'”
As Sim put it on Facebook, “the two are not really the same,” differentiating the proposed debate from the PSP proposal.
To paraphrase what she had to say: “It is explicit in the PSP’s motion that such government hasn’t really performed enough to offer inexpensive and accessible HDB flats, to strengthen the owner-occupation purpose of public housing, to ensure retirement adequacy, or to sustain public housing’s inclusiveness.” We disagree strongly with this claim, to put it briefly.
As Sim put it, “we believe it’s better to have a separate motion that spells out the government’s strategy and aims, and then debate both of them at the same time.”
HDB said this week that the prices of previously occupied apartments went increased by 2.3% in the fourth quarter of 2022. Inflation will average 10.4% in 2022, down from the all-time high of 12.7% in 2021 but up from the 5% expected in 2020.
Apartment resale transactions, however, fell to 6,597 in the fourth quarter, a decrease of 12.6% from the previous quarter and 16.9% from the same period a year ago.
As a whole, resale volumes in 2022 amounted to 27,896 units, down 10.1% from the previous year’s total of 31,017 units.
