Housing Still Available At Affordable Rentals

Source : The Straits Times, Forum, Sep 18, 2007

I REFER to the e-mail by Ms Stephanie Morgan-Russell (ST Insight, Sept 15) and the article, 'It's just insane' (The Sunday Times, Sept 16), regarding the paying of high rentals by expatriates in recent months.

There is a wide range of housing for rent in Singapore and the rentals are based on the type, location and size of accommodation.

One can rent a comfortable, spacious four-room HDB apartment in an easily accessible housing estate for about $1,000 a month. But if one prefers to live in a bungalow with sprawling grounds, then he has to be rich enough to do so.

Expatriates had been enjoying extremely low rentals since 2003. For example, a house in a less-popular area bought in 1996 for $1.8 million was rented out, fully furnished, to an expatriate family for only $1,400 a month in the past.

Even at a low fixed-deposit interest rate of 2.5 per cent per annum, putting that amount in a bank, instead of purchasing the property, would have fetched $3,750 per month.

In other words, owners were subsidising tenants before the increase in rentals.

The increase in rentals seems huge because houses were rented out much too cheaply earlier. It is not because there is a serious shortage of supply, especially as HDB flats can be rented out much more easily now.

I hope that the authorities will not misread the situation just because locals are less vocal than expatriates.

The renting of accommodation at affordable prices is not such a major issue that it warrants the Government looking into the matter.

Yeo Boon Eng (Mdm)