Ho Ching: Maintenance Challenges Makes 99-Year Extensions Unrealistic
Singapore must prepare for the challenges of ageing housing estates as leaseholds shorten and owners grow older, said Madam Ho Ching in a recent commentary on Facebook. She cautioned that when properties are left with only 10 to 15 years on their leases, owners may lose the incentive to maintain their homes. This problem, she […]
Singapore’s Public Housing Is Most Affordable in Asia-Pacific, Says ULI Report
Singapore’s public housing model has once again drawn international praise, with a new report by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) ranking it the most affordable in the Asia-Pacific region. In its latest Asia Pacific Home Attainability Index, ULI found that Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats remain significantly more accessible than housing options in […]
PSP wants to go back to the past where housing was a shelter and an expense, and not a store value: Desmond Lee
The PSP’s Affordability Housing Scheme (AHS) is actually not an original idea but one that is adapted from the past. In the early years of HDB from 1968 to 1987, the flat price was priced based on construction costs, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said. The PSP’s AHS uses a similar idea. “In a way, […]
Minister Desmond Lee called out PSP Leong Mun Wai for his selective use of 1979 data to compare housing affordability
In Parliament (7 March), PSP Leong Mun Wai compared HDB affordability for university and Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB) graduates in 1979, with affordability today, and claimed that graduates are worse off today. Responding to Mr Leong, Minister Desmond Lee said that Singapore in 1979 is firstly very different from Singapore in 2025. There […]
WP Louis Chua is queried on his opposing positions on housing affordability
Recently, it emerged that WP MP Louis Chua’s professional position on public housing differs from his party position. The WP MP has consistently maintained his party’s position that public housing is unaffordable. Yet, in his capacity as a research analyst, he wrote that housing affordability remained healthy. In an exchange in Parliament on Wednesday (Apr […]
Is PSP Leong Mun Wai’s ‘buy now, pay later for land’ affordable housing scheme really cheap?
The PSP proposed an affordable housing scheme in which the buyer of a new BTO pays a ‘user price’ with land cost that is deferred. As long as the owner chooses to live in the flat, he does not have to pay for land cost. The upshot under PSP Leong Mun Wai’s housing proposal is […]
Fresh Start Housing Scheme: a home to call their own
After 8 years living in a rental flat, Madam Zaidah Ismail, 57, finally has a place to call her own – a flat with a flexi lease agreement. Life after her divorce was tough. Mdm Zaidah had to contend with breast cancer while putting in long hours as a security guard. She jumped at the […]
How about making resale HDB flats affordable by selling them at cash over historical cost instead of market price?
New BTOs have remained affordable. The outcry over the unaffordability of HDB flats is mostly over the resale prices. Say you bought a HDB flat in the early days for $50,000. Today, it is worth much more. What would you do if someone comes up to you and say that you should sell your flat […]
Leong Mun Wai’s latest adjournment motion is intended to seed ungrounded expectations of VERS
SMS Sim Ann hopes that PSP Leong Mun Wai will be more responsible in debates in Parliament. That’s a wishful hope. By now, we recognise that LMW is not interested in responsible debates, much less being factual and accurate. He uses the parliamentary immunity he enjoys to repeat misinformation as often as he likes. Seeding […]
The home ownership programme is the success story of Singapore, shared by all Singaporeans: Lee Kuan Yew
The site where the Pinnacle@Duxton stands was where HDB built the first rental blocks in Tanjong Pagar in 1963. At the key handover ceremony for the Pinnacle@Duxton on 13 December 2009, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said the transformation of Singapore’s landscape has been breath-taking. As Mr Lee recounted, in the 1960s, most Singaporeans lived in over-crowded shop […]