臭屁马

在 "谷歌" 时读到的一篇。

Mah Bow Tan claims that HDB flats remain “affordable” and asks Singaporeans to buy a flat “within their means”
January 14, 2010

For the second time in a month, National Development Minister Mr Mah Bow Tan had reassured Singaporeans again that “HDB is committed to ensuring a sufficient supply of new flats and keeping flats affordable, especially for those setting up their first home.” in a written reply to a question from Madam Ho Geok Choo (West Coast GRC).

Two weeks ago, Mr Mah admitted he had been “caught off guard” by the sky-rocketing prices of resale HDB flats which hit a record high in June last year, fueled partly by the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore.

Below is a graph illustrating how the rise in the prices of resale flats coincides with the rise in the number of foreigners in Singapore between the years 2000 and 2008, courtesy of Kojakbt, the moderator of 3in1kopitiam:

(See here: http://politics.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/388014)


Due to the ruling party’s liberal immigration policy, foreigners now made up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 per cent in 1990. According to Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, there are over 20,000 new citizens and 90,000 PRs last year.

As PRs are permitted to buy resale HDB flats in Singapore, their rising numbers had led to an increase in demand for public housing. Propnex CEO Mohamad Ismail estimated that 20 per cent of the buyers of HDB resale flats are PRs. Another real estate agency, C&H quoted a figure as high as 50 per cent.

PRs frequently “spoil” the market by overpaying for HDB flats. An Indonesian PR paid an astonishingly high price of $653,000 for a 4-room resale flat in Queenstown when he could well afford a private apartment. As the prices of new flats are pegged to that of resale flats in the vicinity, this led indirectly to the high launching prices of the Dawson project in Queenstown a few months later.

Despite Mr Mah’s repeated claims that there is “adequate” supply of HDB flats to meet public demand, it appears that his ministry had failed to plan ahead for Singapore’s increased population now a few years ago as evident from the housing statistics provided by HDB in its financial report for FY2008/09.

(See here: http://politics.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/388014)

[Source: HDB Financial Report 2008/2009]

As we can see from the above figures, the number of flats built by HDB for the last three years average about 3,ooo plus a year which is way below the number in the preceding 5 years.
55,515 flats were built between 2001 – 2005, or an average of about 11,000 flats a year. From 1996 – 2000, 158,621 flats were built.

Why are there fewer flats built when the rate of immigration was increased during the same period of time between 2006 – 2008?

It doesn’t take an economist to figure out that the rising demand for public housing in the face of limited supply of flats will lead to inflation in prices with some first-time home buyers missing out on their choice of flats or being priced out of the market altogether.
In two recent sale exercises of BTO and balance flats, they were more than 10 times over-subscribed, an indication of the severity of the housing shortage on the ground.

(See here: http://politics.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/388014)

[Source: HDB Financial Report 2008/2009]

We can see from the above table that there were 9,870 bookings for new flats for only 3,183 units completed in 2008.

Mr Mah also said that “the onus is on Singaporeans to play their part by buying a home within their means.” He had previously castigated first time home buyers who have been complaining about not being able to get a flat of their choice for being “choosy”.

Quoting the affordability benchmark of 30 per cent used frequently by HDB to show that HDB flats remain affordable to ordinary Singaporeans, Mr Mah said a family with a monthly income of $3,000 can buy a flat worth up to $250,000 and spend only 30 per cent of their income every month on the mortgage.

“Similarly, a family with a monthly income of $4,000 can afford to buy a new flat worth up to $333,000 without spending more than 30 per cent a month on the mortgage. This means they can comfortably buy any of the flats offered in the latest BTO projects this month,” he added.
However, Mr Mah fails to take into account the bank interest rates and inflation over the years which will lead eventually to the family spending more than 30 per cent of their monthly income on the mortgage.

Furthermore, after depleting their entire CPF for these over-priced 99-year leasehold HDB flats, they will have little or no savings left for their retirement.

It appears that Mr Mah and his colleagues are unable to comprehend the hardships and sufferings of ordinary Singaporeans, especially first-time home buyers who are under great stress to afford a roof over their heads.

In an earlier statement, Mr Mah even urged home buyers to be “realistic” in their expectations of public housing saying that HDB cannot meet all expectations of home buyers even though the standard of housing has increased over the years.

Singaporeans are paying Mr Mah’s unrealistic salary for him to come out with such unrealistic statements. Perhaps the ruling party should be more realistic of their expectations in the next GE as well.

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大快人心!