New 4-room HDB flats at Punggol cost up to $293,000
September 1st, 2009 | 
Author: From our Correspondent
HDB will be launching 1,142 units of flats at Punggol Spectra for sale under the Build-to-Order (BTO scheme).
The flats comprise 301 two-room units, 285 three-room units and 556 four-roomers.
The prices range from $89,000 to $109,000 for the two-room flats, $151,000 to $179,000 for the three-room flats and $234,000 to $293,000 for the four-room flats.
HDB claimed that the flats are affordable to first-time flat buyers as they are priced well below the 30 per cent international benchmark for affordable housing. However, it did not indicate the source or authority behind the benchmark.
The rising price of HDB flats which has already hit a peak this year is a perennial concern for Singaporeans. Government ministers and HDB are adamant that HDB flats remain affordable to Singaporeans despite sentiments on the contrary.
Punggol which is situated far away from the city centre, used to be an unpopular area of residence for Singaporeans. The new flats are now built in far-fetched places due to limited land.
A four-room HDB resale flat in the prime district of Bishan cost between $280,000 and $320,000 only a year ago. The current prices of new flats in Punggol is a reflection of the steep rise in prices.
While prices of new flats have risen by as much as $30,000 to $40,000 over the last 2 years, the median salary of Singaporeans has not increased by much.
According to the latest 2008 figures from the Singapore Department of Statistics, the monthly median income of employed households living in 3- and 4-room HDB flats have increased by a mere 5%. (source: singstat)
Under present HDB housing policies, the hardest hit will be the middle-income group who do not qualify for the housing subsidy.
To buying a 3-room Premium, 4-room or bigger flat, one’s gross monthly household income must not be more than $8,000. For 3-room flat, the monthly household income must not be more than $3,000. For 2-room flat, monthly household income must not be more than $2,000. (source: HDB)
A couple with a combined income of more than $8,000 will have to settle for an overpriced resale flat or private condominium whose prices have hit a historical peak as well.
Singapore’s leaders have always insisted that rising HDB prices help to create wealth for the citizens, a thought which was echoed by Senior Minister of State for National Development lately when she said that the current market will result in higher “asset values” for flat owners.
However, for first-time buyers who do not own any property, they are unable to capitalize on the “asset value”. In fact, it is highly doubtful if they will be able to make a profit on their HDB flats in the future given the currently high prices. Should the property market crash as in 1996, they will be plunge into dire straits.
HDB flats should not just be affordable. They must be “easily” affordable to all Singaporeans since they are supposed to be highly subsidized public housing.
It is time that the government review the prices of new HDB flats and the amount of housing subsidies given to first-time flat buyers.
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Posted in Editorial
Huray..
prices are getting up
and people are going to be richer by the day
since their property value goes up
Too bad if don’t own any property yet..
If you want a flat, you will have to pay more than others who
are happy because they bought earlier ..
Who asks you to delay until now then you want to buy?
Now you have to pay more..!! ha hah
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Okay guys, Richie is one of the property speculators that make it difficult for ordinary people to own a home. Maybe somebody who knows him should unmask him and identify which properties belong to him so that they can be burnt down and make him lose his entire fortune
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actually the hardest hit are the singles, they can only buy resale flats and their subsidies are the least.
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when will temasek review start publicising itself beyond the confines of cyberspace? ever thought of distributing tissue papers with ur web address/logo on it?
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The market will surely burst next year after Chinese new year.
The stock market will come down for sure.
Many people will commit suicide.
Good luck Singapore.
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It is a myth that higher asset will results in greater wealth…
For first time buyers, with ever rising asset value, most likely than not these group of people must fork out more money to buy the flats, and hence turn up having to pay more interest.
For existing owners, this might be a good thing… but think again. If the price go up, and the owner choose not to sell off the house, the increase in asset value is nothing more than an illusion. If the owner plans to cash in on asset appreciation, he is subjecting himself to buying a new house that is of the same price level of the house that he has just sold… hence it is zero sum in the end.
Of course, one can argue asset appreciation is beneficial for those who are buying more than a house or speculators… but then… these people are not the majority.
Generally, the argument that asset appreciation is beneficially to the mass is a totally flawed argument imo.
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exactly what benefit will we get if our HDB prices are sky high? there is no way in downgrading to leverage the benefit
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Just my two-cents’ worth of thought – somewhere in the North-Central area they’re selling HDB’s with slick packaging and cool-ish marketing (ie., Design and Built, although I always felt this is a complete misnomer as I always thought ALL flats were designed and built but that’s a different story altogether) for up to $700,000.
And you still, after having to fork out this insane amount of money, get insulted by the fact you can’t actually choose the very unit you want (ie., there’s the usual balloting process to go through) and have to put up with the $8000 monthly income cap.
Affordable indeed.
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Do you know that …
1. NEW 4-Rm HDB Flats of built-in area 90-91 Sq.Ms (970-980 Sq.Ft.) were sold for like $240-245K some 5 years ago!!! And ALSO these unsold ones even now in older MATURE HDB Estates WHICH ARE Sub-URBAN AT some 8% DISCOUNTs. NOW, Compare THESE to Ponggol’s RURAL way out of Urban/Town location.
2. And AT THE Ponggol’s same type flat prices … ISN’T THIS A Significant INCREASE OF about 20%!!! … Over the old prices!!! Or rather 20% OR MORE when you compare Sub-URBAN to RUARAL Ponggol!!!
3. Our history has it that our 1st PM on TV told us all THAT 25%-25% for Employee-Employer CPF Contributions … HE HAD Calculated IS-ENuff. HE gave NO DETAILS of HOW HE ARRIVED AT those figures NOR DID HE Explain … ENUFF-FOR-HOW-LONG???
A True ‘VISIONARY MAN’???
4. AND, since THEN, “WE, THE CITIZENS OF SINGAPORE” … IN EQUALITY AND IN “SUBSTANCE” AND “HARWARE” WEALTH UP UP UP ‘STANDARDS-OF-LIVING’ … HAS BEEN “PAPaying” ever-more FOR ever-less Built-In LIVING-SPACES UP UP UP In-The-AIR!!!
5. BUT NOW … go look AT those of some 5 yrs OLDER HDB $-Rm AND 5-Rm flats mentioned in Item 1 above … And SEE those UnDulating and literally “Ripple-Style” Ceilings … THAT their OWNERS have NOT the money to spend a FEW Thousand DOLLARS to MAKE THEM “Decent” Looking!!!
6. Of course ArGuMent WILL BE THAT THESE ARe “Designed AND Built” HDB flats “ARE OF ‘HIGHER’ Quality” … YET … ‘HIGHER’ WHAT??? … AND “ENUFF CPF Savings WHAT” … As Ever … HAS NEVER BEEN DEFINED … BY ‘ABOVE-PRO’ Ministers OF “MASTER-CLASS” And PAID Over-THE-”MASTER-CLASS” WorldWide Levels AND Norms … – WHOM WE NOW KNOW “ARE InCapable OF DOING-So Right??? “GeNeRalLiSSiMos” ARE Nothing more THAN … GENERALLY Speaking as in speak speak – talk talk shows LACKING In SBSTANCE AND Thus SO INCOMPARABLE To ONES LIKE “Oprah Winfrey’s” TALK-OTHE-TOWNS” GENRE YAH!!!
7. WHY INCREASEs??? … ASSEST ‘EnHanceMent’!!! But FOR gAhmEnT AND It’s Minister’s AND All It’s Agencies TOO!!! AS WHO GAINS when “YOU the citizens OF singapore ‘IN-EQUALITY’ CANNOT sell your HDB-Roof OVER-YOUR-’BLESSED’-heads to buy another … But AT The Same Or HiGHER PRICEs FOR Another SMALLER unit???!!!
8. PAP Qualified lawyers, staticcians, administraters, strategists, ‘eNgiNEERs’, accountants, archectects, plaaners, economists , et cetera ARE TRULY great and aCuTe MATHEMATICIANS TOO … AREN’T THEY??? … DO take your ‘hats’ OFF And ‘bOw’ down to them HAW!!!
9. EIGHT … IS ENUFF ….??? Let’s GIVE them a-BREAK YAH!!!
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If you don’t own a property, you want it to keep going down.
If you owned a property, you want it to keep going up.
You cannot please everyone.
It is about time young couples contemplate with the idea of staying with our parents after marriage.
The get-married-and-move-out idea will be too expensive, IF, you intend to get married younger at your 20s.
Unlike western thinking, as an Asian, staying with your parents is cool. They can help you to take care of your children.
So think about it, you and your wife work so hard leaving the new house empty the whole day and only spend time on that 6ft bed at night?
Let your parents enjoy the house.
The government might fail you, family will not.
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