Board trying to contain cost by simplifying some projects
CONSTRUCTION costs for Housing & Development Board (HDB) flats have increased but the impact on buyers is likely to be limited, due to HDB's pricing policy and cost-control measures.
Mr Mah: For new flats, higher costs will probably feed through indirectly as market price of flats goes upSpeaking to the media at HDB yesterday, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said that 'construction costs have gone up significantly both for the building of private as well as public housing'. According to him, construction costs may have risen 20 to 30 per cent in general.
'HDB is trying to contain the cost as much as it can,' he added. One way is to simplify some of its projects. The government is also withholding some projects to ease pressures on the construction sector.
Asked how much of the increase in construction costs would go to buyers, he said that 'for new flats, it should not feed directly through to the buyers, but it will probably feed through indirectly as the market price of flats goes up'.
In a forum reply last year, HDB mentioned that the prices of new flats are based on the market prices of resale HDB flats, not on construction costs. 'In order to provide affordable housing to Singaporean families, new HDB flats are priced below their equivalent market values,' said the reply.
Mr Mah assured that the prices of public housing will remain affordable.
The squeeze in the construction sector is not likely to delay the integrated resort projects. Progress is 'on track', he said.
Mr Mah also expects demand for HDB flats to strengthen if Singapore's population grows as it has over the last few years. 'We are monitoring the situation, and as the demand grows, we are also increasing the supply.'
He pointed out, however, that 'we must also always be careful that we do not overbuild.'
HDB yesterday launched 382 flats for sale at Straits Vista @ Marsiling under the Build-To-Order (BTO) system. The first HDB project in Woodlands town in recent years, Straits Vista forms part of the total BTO supply of 8,400 units planned for this year. The project will comprise 50 three-room units with an indicative price range of $116,000 to $164,000, and 332 four-room units from $184,000 to $257,000.
HDB will receive the United Nations Public Service Award for its home ownership programme on June 23 and Mr Mah was at the agency to celebrate the win. There are more than 800,000 HDB flats in Singapore, housing more than 80 per cent of the resident population. About 95 per cent of HDB households own their homes.
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Source : The Business Times, June 20, 2008
HDB contibuting to price spiral
I REFER to the article 'HDB pricing policy limits impact of rising costs' (BT, June 11).
As a 60-year-old Singaporean, I empathise with the growing despair of young couples when it comes to such a basic aspiration as home ownership. Private property is mostly beyond their reach. Even for HDB flats, they are caught between waiting as long as six years for new flats or paying exorbitant prices for resale flats.
In the 1970s, a graduate's starting pay was around $1,000 per month. Then, in HDB Marine Parade Estate, prices of 3-room, 4-room and 5-room new flats were $17,000, $20,000 and $35,000 respectively. By 1990, the average price of 5-room new flats was $70,000. Such prices then reflected a 'cost-based' pricing approach.
Now, graduate starting pay is three times higher than in the 1970s, but prices of new similar HDB flats have gone up 10-30 times.
These massive price hikes are largely due to the HDB switching over to a 'market-based' pricing approach, following the 1994 property bull run.
In 2007, the HDB finally confirmed that 'the prices of new HDB flats are based on the market prices of resale HDB flats, and not their costs of construction'. In 2000, the total break-even cost for a 5-room new flat was an estimated $120,000.
But, under the market- based pricing approach, the HDB first looks at the prevailing market price of, say, $260,000 of a 5-room resale flat. It will then pick a slightly lower figure of, say, $200,000 as the selling price for the 5-room new flat (despite its $120,000 break-even cost).
HDB will then say the new flat buyer is getting a so-called 'market subsidy' of $60,000, arising from the difference between the resale flat market price and new flat selling price. There is thus no actual 'cash subsidy' given at all.
This market-based pricing approach had resulted in new flat prices and resale flat prices chasing each other in an upward spiral, affecting buyers of both new and resale flats. It has also led to current prices of 4-room new flats varying so much from $200,000 (Sengkang) to $400,000 (Telok Blangah) and a whopping $590,000 (Boon Keng).
HDB is supposed to be a low-cost public housing developer. Why then is it not passing on to flat buyers the economy-of-scale cost savings in its huge developments by pricing its new flats on a cost-based break-even basis?
See Leong Kit
Singapore
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