By Leong Sze Hian
I refer to the article “More smaller flats in pipeline for singles and seniors: Khaw” (Channel NewsAsia, Dec 16).
Build more 2-room and studio?
It states that “The Housing and Development Board (HDB) will be building more two-room flats to allow more singles to realise their dreams of owning their homes.
Authorities will also continue to push out a steady stream of studio apartments to help the seniors right-size, if they wish, said National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan.
For families, the authorities will begin to reduce the supply of three-room, four-room and five-room flats.”
As to “Mr Khaw said: “Together with the series of cooling measures, the housing market has now largely stabilised, with cash-over-valuation (COVs) in the resale market reaching new lows. This is good for buyers, both for first-timer and second-timer homebuyers.”
– It made me curious as to what are the prices of our cheapest HDB flats – studio and 2-room flats – given the remarks “the housing market has now largely stabilised, with cash-over-valuation (COVs) in the resale market reaching new lows. This is good for buyers, both for first-timer and second-timer homebuyers”?
So, I decided to try to check on their prices from 2010 to now.
2-room price increased 57% in 3 years?
The cheapest 2-room flat in Sengkang increased by 22 per cent, from $68,000 (June 2010) to $83,000 (January 2012).
The latest BTO in Sengkang in July 2013 saw an increase in the 2-room price to $91,000 (Fernvale Lea) and $107,000 (Rivervale Arc). This is an increase of about 34 to 57 per cent in the 3 years from June 2010 to July 2013, or an increase of about 10.2 to 16.3 per cent per annum.
Studio increased by 77% in 3.5 years?
For studio flats, the cheapest one in Choa Chu Kang increased by 20 per cent, from $64,000 (January 2010) to $77,000 (January 2012).
The November 2012 BTO’s cheapest studio in Toa Payoh at $116,000, was an increase of 23 per cent from $94,000 in March 2012 in just 8 months.
As I could not find any BTO studio flats in Choa Chu Kang or Toa Payoh this year, I looked at the launches which had studios this year –
- November 2013 – Hougang Meadow was $84,000,
- September 2013 – Khatib Court was $83,000,
- July 2013 – Telok Blangah ParcView was $113,000, and
- March 2013 – Compassvale Cape/Helm at $88,000.
So, the cheapest studio in Choa Chu kang in January 2010 at $64,000 had increased from about 30 to 77 per cent to a range of $83,000 (Khatib Court) to $113,000 (Telok Blangah ParcView) this year.
This is an increase of about 7.1 to 16.4 per cent per annum.
So, how can we say that BTO flat prices have “largely stabilised”?
Poorest Singaporeans’ flat prices increased the most?
Since 2-room flats are generally for the lowest-income families, and studio flats are generally for retirees who may need to downgrade in order to get some cashflow to retire, why do we allow these flats’ cheapest prices to increase by up to 77 per cent (studio) in the last 42 months or up to 57 per cent (2-room) in the last 37 months?
Meaning of stabilised?
Perhaps the HDB’s definition of “largely stabilised” may be quite different from the dictionary’s!
Moreover, considering that the tiny studio flats only have a 30-year lease and cannot be resold in the open market – why are their prices almost as much as the 2-room flats that have the normal 99 year lease?
How many flat applicants are there?
With regard to “As a new housing scheme, the application rates for singles were especially high. It was 58 for the first BTO launch, but has since dropped to 27 in the November BTO launch.
The ramped up programme has cleared much of the backlog from family applicants.
This was especially so for first-time applicants — their application rate went down steadily from 2.4 in January to 1.3 in November.
Second-timer application rate also fell significantly, from 14.9 in January to 2.7 in November.
The application rate for studio apartments steadied at an average of 2.1 in 2013, and the final take-up was less than 70 per cent for the first six months”
– Why not just tell us the total number in the queue for the different types of flats, instead of piecemeal BTO launch application rates?
