Parliament to debate public housing affordability next Monday

THE affordability and accessibility of public housing in Singapore is set to be debated in Parliament next Monday (Feb 6). 

According to a Facebook post by Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann on Jan 30, the debate – which was filed by National Development Minister Desmond Lee – will provide more details on the government’s approach towards public housing. 

Sim added that they will debunk “spurious claims” and hear “constructive views and suggestions” on how Singaporeans’ home ownership aspirations can be fulfilled. 

Earlier in January, Progress Singapore Party (PSP) Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Leong Mun Wai shared on Facebook that he had filed a motion to review the government’s housing policies, including the pricing of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats, which he argued should not include land costs. 

“Instead of historical cost pricing, I will be putting up some substantial policy recommendations for debate, and I can assure you that none of those policies will lead to a ‘raiding of our reserves’,” he said.

In Sim’s Facebook post, she emphasised that although the upcoming debate might seem similar to the motion filed by PSP, “the two are not really the same”. 

“Implicit in the PSP’s motion is the claim that the government has not done enough to deliver affordable and accessible HDB flats, strengthen owner-occupation intent of public housing, protect retirement adequacy or keep public housing inclusive,” she said. “We disagree with this claim.” 

“We feel it is better to state the government’s intent and strategy squarely in a separate motion and debate both together,” added Sim.

Figures from HDB last week showed that prices of resale flats rose 2.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2022. This puts price growth for the whole of 2022 at 10.4 per cent – while slower than 2021’s record growth of 12.7 per cent, this is still above the 5 per cent growth posted in 2020.

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Meanwhile, transaction volumes of resale flats dipped to 6,597 units in Q4, a decline of 12.6 per cent quarter on quarter and 16.9 per cent year on year. 

Resale volumes for the whole of 2022 totalled 27,896 flats, 10.1 per cent lower than the 31,017 flats in the previous year.