Mah Bow Tan
Singapore
“The previous generation of Singaporeans overcame huge odds together to create this improbable nation which we call home. Let this generation work as one to define our country for the next lap of our journey. Sir, on this note, I fully support the amended Motion. Page: 143”
“Like all upgrading programmes, there is a certain budget, and a certain pace at which we will build. We have completed the LUP and now we are going on towards the HIP. The Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP) is ongoing.”
“For those who cannot afford home ownership, we will provide rental flats. For the rest where there is hardship involved, that is where the safety net comes in. I do not think we should make the safety net so wide as to bring in everybody.”
“Building a studio apartment is no different from building any other HDB flat. If a person applies now and the building works start now, he can get it in two-and-a-half years to three years. We have stepped up the building of studio apartments over the last couple of years.”
“Mdm Halimah Yacob asked the Minister for Health (a) how many people have signed an Advance Medical Directive (AMD) and how many have revoked them since; and (b) whether there is a need to review the current rules on AMDs which do not require a person who has revoked the AMD to inform the Registrar, thus causing uncertainty for hospitals t…”
“Parents who wish to exert more control over the maximum mobile service charges incurred by their children may consider service options such as mobile pre-paid cards. IDA is aware of the public's concerns on mobile subscriptions, and will continually review policies and look into measures to further protect the interest of consumers.”
The complete record
Every one of 3,030 lines we hold for Mah Bow Tan, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 1 of 61.
“The previous generation of Singaporeans overcame huge odds together to create this improbable nation which we call home. Let this generation work as one to define our country for the next lap of our journey. Sir, on this note, I fully support the amended Motion. Page: 143”
“They range from provincial level cities like Beijing and Shanghai to prefectural level ones like Wuhan, even Dalian and Qingdao. All of them are our potential competitors. They are attracting investments in high-tech areas like biotech, like digital animation, like optics, renewable energy. Not your traditional lower-end industries; high-tech industries. Page: 142 Closer to home, our neighbours are also doing well. Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines have started to move. They complement us but they also compete. So, which will dominate? It really depends on us. Further afield, developments will also affect us. Will the US' new-found access to cheap energy make their manufacturing more competitive and less reliant on cheaper overseas plants? Will Europe be able to recover quickly from its economic woes? All these issues affect us profoundly. We cannot influence how they turn out but we can position ourselves so that we ride the wave with them, and not be caught in the tide and drown. Our fundamentals have not changed. We are still a small city-state, in fact, we are a tiny city-state. We still do not have oil or gas, gold or diamonds. Our politics may have entered a "new normal" but our need to earn a living through our wits, our hard work and our need to be useful to the world – that has not changed. Sir, this White Paper is about each and every one of us, as Singaporeans living on this tiny island. It is about how we can enjoy a good life – happy and meaningful, balanced and fulfilling. I urge my fellow Singaporeans to keep our hearts and minds open to give the Government a chance to explain its plans and time to implement them. And work together for our beloved country.”
“It is almost taken for granted that the good life will continue even if growth slows. We expect new infrastructure to be rolled out even if growth slows. More houses, more rail lines. We want more subsidies for healthcare and housing. But, "please, let's have fewer foreign workers and a slower pace of life". Where will the revenue from all these come from? I looked for some indication of this in the White Paper and I found it in small print in a footnote on page 31. It says and I quote, "Government revenue comes mostly from income taxes, consumption taxes and asset taxes all of which are dependent on economic growth". I think this should be in bold. I think it should be highlighted in a box and not put in a footnote. How do we make a living in an increasingly competitive world? I believe size matters. I believe we need a bigger population with better educated and trained citizens, as well as talented non-residents, to supplement our home-grown talent. I visit China regularly for business. Every time I come back from China, I get worried for Singapore. The young people are getting more and more educated. Every year, they produce more than 6 million graduates. But there are not enough good jobs for them, so they are thirsty for knowledge, they are hungry for success. They are willing to work long and hard for their rewards. I was in Tsinghua University in Beijing recently and I met with some students. I could see the drive and the tremendous energy oozing out of them. They are our competitors, not just the foreign students who are studying here. This is happening not only in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai but all across China. According to the 2010 census, there are 18 cities in China with populations of over 6 million.”
“This debate on the White Paper is not a debate about which number is the right one. It is about the direction we want to take. The kind of Singapore we want. Is it fully open for business? Is it partially open? Or is it totally closed? It is quite clear to us that it cannot be fully opened as we were before. We are running; smack into our resource constraints and the pace of change is too fast for people to adjust. To be totally closed would be a disaster, even for a few years, as the Workers' Party had suggested. Business will close, jobs lost. Once businesses decide to leave, it is unlikely that they will come back. We would have thrown away one of our key competitive advantages: a consistent, investor-friendly approach to business. We would very quickly wither into irrelevance. Which leaves us with the balance option: let in some foreign labour to supplement our local workforce, but not as much as before. Businesses would want more, some people would want less. The numbers can be collaborated. I support this. I say go for the maximum that our resources – land, water, energy – can support; whatever that number. It shows that Singapore is an attractive place, a thriving, vibrant city, one where people want to come here; live and work and play. If we lose our competitiveness, we lose our verve and vitality, our cohesion and confidence. Page: 141 Not only will we not have foreigners wanting to come here, our own sons and daughters will leave for a better life. Which brings me to my other point. In this debate, we have spent a lot of our time looking inwards; talking about our discomforts, our space. We have not asked ourselves how we are going to compete with the outside world. How we are going to earn a living to live a good life?”
“And Singapore will change. Frankly, right now, it is hard to convince people that the White Paper is on the right track, Our people cannot understand why we are talking about bringing in more people when, in their own day-to-day experience, they feel the squeeze on trains and buses. One resident put it to me bluntly – fix the problems first, then talk. I explained to him that the Government is doing both: fixing the short-term problems and also, at the same time, talking about Page: 140 our long-term challenges. He was not entirely convinced. Seeing is believing. I suggest that we should deal with this issue in two parts. First, from now till 2020, concentrate on the on-going infrastructure improvements like new rail lines, bus routes, ramp up our marriage and procreation policies, strengthen integration and community bonding among citizens, old and new and PRs; while slowing down but not stopping the inflow of foreign workers to allow companies to adjust. Leave the debate on post-2020 scenarios to another date but continue to improve our infrastructure. Second, in five years' time, review the White Paper's assumptions and estimates for post-2020. This will give everyone a clearer picture of whether our trains and buses are getting less crowded, our housing prices have stabilised, our people are having more babies, our companies are more productive and learning to cope with less foreign workers. Will these happen and, if so, by how much? It would be a much informed and meaningful debate by then. So, let us not be sidetracked by the numbers. Numbers can change, numbers are not targets. The real objective of the White Paper must be the well-being of Singaporeans – happy, confident, optimistic, hopeful now and in the future. And population is a means to that end.”
“Mr Deputy Speaker, I join this debate because I think the White Paper on Population is probably the most important document regarding our future that we have seen since Independence. It sets out a comprehensive roadmap on what the Singapore population of the future is likely to look like. It outlines the framework for a significant shift in policy, from manpower-led growth to productivity-led growth. It spells out major boosts in marriage and procreation incentives. Finally, it details the huge investments to be made in infrastructure improvements, especially in our rail network. Sir, there are so many bold and positive initiatives in the White Paper affecting us as Singaporeans. And, yet, I worry that we are not being fair to ourselves when public discussion and debate, even in this House, overly focus on numbers, especially the figure of 6.9. This figure has been called many things: it is a "target", which it is definitely not; a "possibility" – yes; "projection" – also correct; a "worst case scenario" – maybe. We have been caught in a semantics trap. In other words, what was said has been taken to mean something other than what was intended. People believe what they chose to believe. The fact is that nobody really knows for sure what our actual population will be like in 2030. Because population planning is not an exact science – it has never been. It depends on so many variables: our TFR, immigration rates, our physical constraints, which, in turn, depend on factors beyond our control: the external economy, technology changes and, most of all, our relative competitiveness and attractiveness as a city. Twenty thirty is so many years away. Some of us will not be around by then. Anything can happen between now and then. The world will change.”
“The Home Protection Scheme (HPS) is a mortgage-reducing insurance scheme which protects HDB households against the loss of their flats should the breadwinner pass away or become incapacitated before the home loan is fully paid up. HPS is compulsory for all HDB flat owners who are using their CPF savings to service their monthly home instalments for an HDB or bank loan. About 556,000 CPF members currently use their CPF savings to service the loans for their HDB flats. Of these, 88% are covered under HPS. 8.5% are exempted from HPS as they have already purchased similar insurance products. About 2% are not insured under HPS because of medical conditions or other reasons. A very small percentage of the lessees (1.7%) have seen their HPS lapse due to insufficient funds in the CPF Ordinary Account to pay for the HPS premium. This may be due to a variety of reasons, including loss of employment by the flat lessees. Where appropriate, HDB will work with the relevant social agencies to extend employment assistance and other financial assistance measures to families in financial difficulty. APPENDICES Section Name: ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS Title: CHANGES TO NOMINATION DAY PROCEEDINGS Filename : Nomination Day Proceedings MP Name: The Minister for Home Affairs (Mr K Shanmugam) Section Name: ASSENTS TO BILLS PASSED Title: ASSENTS TO BILLS PASSED Filename : Assents to Bills Passed”
“Parliament has just approved a Grow and Share Budget. The Finance Minister has returned $4 billion to the reserves. There are measures to address both short-term concerns of inflation and cost of living, as well as long-term issues of competitiveness and inclusive growth. Sir, most governments are focused on the short term, especially in an Election year. That this Government is not like most governments is one reason why we have been able to overcome so many challenges along the way to where we are today. 5.15 pm Members of this House have not hesitated to speak up on behalf of their constituents on the issues faced on the ground. But they have also not shied away from bringing up the longer-term challenges that we face, difficult though they may be. This is a Parliament that our people should be proud of and one that they deserve. On this note, Sir, I would like to thank you and your deputies, the Clerks and all Parliamentary Staff including the Reporters, the Interpreters and the Librarians for their support, assistance and cooperation. I would also like to thank members of the media for bringing the proceedings in this House to the general public. Thank you.”
“Mr Speaker, Sir, I rise on behalf of hon. Members to thank you and your deputies for so ably chairing the proceedings during the debates on the Budget and the Committee of Supply. Over the last seven days, a total of 58 Members filed 411 cuts in the Committee of Supply. This was the highest number in the last few years which shows that Parliament is also not immune to inflationary pressures. The three most popular Ministries were the Ministry of National Development (MND), Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), and Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). The debates on the estimates for MND and MCYS lasted almost six hours each. Sir, Members used their allotted time well. Some made few but deep cuts, others preferred "death by a thousand cuts" [Laughter ]. Most, if not all, made their points within the time allowed. So, Sir, your guillotine was exercised sparingly and on the odd occasion, not at all, with good cause. Clarification time was well used by both front and backbenchers, thus, making the debate more lively and more enlightening. However, some Members' clarifications sounded more like speeches to me. They would do well to remember that sometimes "less is more". Sir, two years ago, when this House debated the Budget, we were in deep recession. In my acknowledgement to the Chair then, I said that we were facing probably our severest test as a nation since Independence. The Government had announced a Budget which included a Resilience Package, which was unprecedented in size and scope. We tapped into our reserves for the first time in our history. Two years on, we have demonstrated that together – the Government and the people, we have passed the test with flying colours.”
“Building a studio apartment is no different from building any other HDB flat. If a person applies now and the building works start now, he can get it in two-and-a-half years to three years. We have stepped up the building of studio apartments over the last couple of years. That means there will be studio apartments available for senior citizens to purchase in the next year or so and they may not have to wait, provided they are not too choosy about the location.”
“All I can say is that the architectural fraternity's loss is the lawyers' gain, thanks to Ms Indranee. But, seriously, it is very important – I cannot stress this enough – that we must try to get our residents to take more responsibility, as the Member said. Too often, we get calls from neighbours saying please come and stop the neighbours upstairs from making so much noise or from throwing curry down or hanging dripping mops. But when they are asked, "Have you gone upstairs and knocked on the door?" They say, "No, we have not." "Why don't you do that?" They say, "Oh, no, it's not our job. Town Council does it, HDB does it." There are very sorry tales of disputes between neighbours. You get neighbours from hell who make life really terrible for people. I think when it gets to that stage, yes, certainly HDB, Town Council, and sometimes the Police, will have to come in and do something. But before it reaches that stage, I think there is a lot that can be done by the residents themselves. I think all Members are on the same page as far as this is concerned. But, really, we should flag this issue and it is an issue that will become of greater concern as Singapore becomes more densely populated. I think we will have to find a mechanism to deal with that. We have some ideas and we will be looking at this, together with other agencies, to try to mobilise residents to take more responsibility for this aspect of high-rise living. I will be happy to share this with Members at an appropriate time.”
“I think the Member has raised a very fundamental point. As I said earlier, our national goal is to promote home ownership. Our national goal is not to promote home ownership, followed by cashing out, followed by coming to an MP to get rental flats. It is not home ownership followed by rental flats. It is home ownership, full stop. Unfortunately, there are people who take the opportunity to cash out for whatever reason – financial difficulties, repaying loans, and so on. Some do it as part of "flipping". They cash out and then they think they can buy another HDB flat to make money. We want to discourage people from cashing out. This is why, as far as the SHG is concerned, we have positioned it as a CPF housing grant. So, even if they sell the flat, they will not able to take the cash out. They will have to put it back into their CPF which can only be used either to purchase another flat or for retirement. Having said that, I understand where the Member is coming from. We should take this issue more seriously and find ways and means to discourage people who own a flat from cashing out prematurely. I have said it before that this is a concern, so we should be looking for ways and means to discourage people from cashing out. We will be studying this issue in due course.”
“I do not recall speaking louder when I said "sooner" rather than "later". But, I did say "sooner" first . Perhaps, if the economy continues to do well in the next few years and the Finance Minister is in a generous mood, it will be sooner rather than later. It all depends ultimately on what resources are available, whether it is the Estate Upgrading Programmes, ROH or Lift Upgrading Programmes for car parks. We do not have an LUP for carparks. We do have an LUP programme for all eligible HDB blocks. That is the priority and we intend to finish that within the target that we have set. By this year, all the eligible blocks should be selected and by 2014, all of them should be completed. That is where all the resources are being directed. The next priority, of course, is the HIP programme. This is a programme that is very useful and well sought after. We want to make sure that that is done. On lifts for carparks: yes, when we do certain upgrading programmes for precincts, and especially when we do NRP in the area, we can consider lift upgrading for car parks. It is not an island-wide programme at the moment because we have other priorities. Where there is a need, we will certainly look into it.”
“Like all upgrading programmes, there is a certain budget, and a certain pace at which we will build. We have completed the LUP and now we are going on towards the HIP. The Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP) is ongoing. Every year, we get a certain sum of money from the Ministry of Finance to do EUP and then we choose five or six estates in every batch. The last I heard, Yio Chu Kang Gardens was not in the batch of successful EUP estates. I encourage the Member to nominate Yio Chu Kang Gardens again for the next round. Who knows, it might be in the next batch. The Member does not have to wait. She does not have to ask me . It is entirely up to the Member. If the estate is old enough and if it requires upgrading, I am sure the Committee that is selecting it will give it favourable consideration. Please do not be discouraged.”
“For those who cannot afford home ownership, we will provide rental flats. For the rest where there is hardship involved, that is where the safety net comes in. I do not think we should make the safety net so wide as to bring in everybody. And neither should we have a third subsidy, even with conditions, because the subsidies for home ownership are already generous enough. Er Lee Bee Wah: I am very glad to hear from the Minister that he plans to finish HIP in 10 years' time, that is, by 2021. I would like to ask the Minister whether he has similar plans for the completion of EUP for the qualified private estates. Every time I go Yio Chu Kang Gardens, residents will ask me when they will get EUP. I can only tell them, "I will ask Minister".”
“Mr Chairman, the point raised by Mr Cedric Foo is a fundamental one. Basically, he is saying that instead of channelling the subsidies through the rental route, why not do it through the ownership route. Basically, we already have a lot of subsidies channelled through the ownership route. The question is whether we can do more, provide more subsidies, perhaps a third "bite of the cherry", with conditions. We want to promote home ownership for as many people as possible. To that extent, we have a slew of subsidies in place – both implicit as well as explicit. These subsidies have allowed the home ownership rate to be as high as eight in 10. We also have a second subsidy which allows people to upgrade and this promotes social mobility. If you are moving from a small flat to a large flat, even if you have to pay the resale levy, it is still worth your while to upgrade. On top of that, there are the two housing loan subsidies. The concessionary loan subsidies are also very significant subsidies. If we add it all up, you will find that the subsidies to promote home ownership are very generous. What the Member is asking is, having consumed all these very generous subsidies, can we now offer yet another subsidy? This $100,000 subsidy is not an entitlement for those who have already enjoyed subsidies. We encourage people to buy their first homes and have another step in place for them to upgrade. The people that Mr Cedric Foo are referring to are those who have already consumed their subsidies and are now coming back for yet another subsidy. Those are the people whom we would not like to see coming to us for a rental flat. Therefore, in answer to Mr Cedric Foo's question, the home ownership programme is for the majority of Singaporeans.”
“The Kallang Airport Terminal Building – the hangars and the Central Lawn which are conserved – will be transformed into a lifestyle destination. Paya Lebar will be transformed into an attractive commercial hub in the fringe of the city to complement the Central Business District. Construction of a new pedestrian mall along Geylang Road is expected to complete by 2013. This new pedestrian mall will be flanked by outdoor kiosks, sidewalk cafes and will provide more space for stalls during the popular annual Hari Raya Bazaar. Later this year, WDA will start constructing its Continuing Education and Training Campus East (CET Campus East). Earlier, I talked about CET West Campus, this will be the location of the CET East Campus. In summary, to answer Mr Cedric Foo on how our future city will be like – it will be an outstanding city. It will be one that is high-rise, high-density, yet liveable. It will be vibrant, yet sustainable. It will be cosmopolitan, yet cohesive. Sir, our long-term vision is an ambitious one. We want to develop Singapore into an endearing home with a heart and a global city with a soul. By planning and investing ahead early, we believe that we will be able to build a better Singapore for Singaporeans. Construction productivity”
“I welcome all inputs from Members of the House when the draft plan is available. Sir, Singaporeans need not wait 50 years to see change. Our lives will change for the better even in the next five years. Mr Cedric Foo asked about the Marina Bay. Developments around Marina Bay started 10 years ago. Some projects were completed last year and this year but there is more to come within the next two years. The Arts Science Museum has just opened. The construction of the new International Cruise Terminal will be completed at the end of this year. The much-awaited Gardens by the Bay saw the completion of one of these jewels – the Flower Dome Conservatory, late last year. The Garden will welcome visitors from June next year but community groups will get a chance to preview the Gardens in the months leading up to its official opening. I have asked NParks to invite advisers and community groups to start to preview the Gardens towards the end of this year, when it is ready, as a soft opening. The Gardens will be a world-class attraction and a premier garden for Singaporeans as well as visitors to enjoy. 5.15 pm It is not just in the Marina Bay alone that developments are taking place. Our regional growth areas have also taken off. Within the next five years, Kallang Riverside will become our newest waterfront destination. You can expect to see hotels along the riverfront, with panaromic views of Kallang River and the city. The Sports Hub will be completed by 2014. It is going to incorporate a new National Stadium with 55,000 capacity to bring back the Kallang Roar. It will have a 6,000-capacity indoor aquatic centre, a 3,000-capacity multi-purpose arena and a water sports centre.”
“It will reduce the pressure, although it will not totally eliminate it. Fourth, to the extent that we can mitigate it, we will still need to invest in our road and rail network to provide better connectivity for residents. Fifth, we will have to invest in new infrastructure to make Singapore a city for all ages – what Minister Lim Boon Heng talked about – one that is friendly to the old, to the young and to the families. Specifically to address Assoc. Prof. Fatimah Lateef, Ms Jessica Tan and Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan's questions, we will consciously safeguard land for leisure, social facilities and amenities for people. For example, we are going to factor in the needs of an ageing population, and this includes the suggestion by Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan for a retirement community or a retirement village. Whether that community or village is to be built by HDB or other public sector agencies or whether it should be better built by private sector agencies is something that we have to discuss. We will have to set aside land for such future housing typologies as well as land for healthcare, for nursing homes, for other facilities that will cater to the elderly. But we can integrate different facilities to intensify the use of land, or we can require greater use of public rather than private transport. Of course, we will not forget our heritage and our collective memories by preserving our collective memories even as we rejuvenate our city so as to keep us rooted to this place we call home. A public exhibition to showcase the key ideas and strategies of the draft Concept Plan 2011 will be held towards the end of the year, and we will seek more public feedback before finalising Concept Plan 2011.”
“Defence, housing, transportation, industry, leisure, you name it. All these various needs to be accommodated within this finite space of 700 square kilometres. All the things that Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Mr Cedric Foo talked about. It is not easy. We will have to make trade-offs. We will have to make trade-offs between different needs and we may even have to be prepared to change the way we live, work or play. With careful planning, we can still enjoy a quality living environment even as our economy and our population expand. We will need to invest significant fiscal resources to achieve this. What are the investments we will need to make? First, we will have to invest heavily to expand our land as much as we can by intensifying the use of existing land, by reclaiming more land if we can and by creating underground space. That is going to take up a lot financial resources. This is what Ms Jessica Tan mentioned in her speech in the Budget debate. Second, we will have to invest to rejuvenate key areas of our city. We have to make space for new industries, we have to make space for commercial activities and we have to continue to make Singapore relevant as a place for businesses and for global headquarters for the financial sector and for many other business sectors as well. Third, we have to invest to build up and to create new HDB estates to accommodate a bigger population as well as to upgrade our existing towns. We will be injecting more housing units across the island, especially in the central and west areas, so that we can improve the job/worker distribution and bring jobs closer to home. If we can redress this imbalance somewhat, we will be able to reduce or mitigate the pressure on our transportation network.”
“We will make sure that there are RC centres, there are senior citizens' corners and so on. But it is the heartware that will make our estates sustainable, long-term homes and communities for Singaporeans. Sir, let me now talk about the longer-term remaking of our city and nation. Several Members have asked how we can support a growing population whilst preserving a good quality of life. That is indeed the key question that we ask ourselves and that we seek to answer under the Concept Plan 2011. This is the national land use planning exercise that we do every 10 years. It is an exercise that will map out our long-term land use strategies and the vision for the physical development of Singapore over the next 40 to 50 years. To answer Dr Lim Wee Kiak and Mr Cedric Foo: yes, we are keeping the planning parameter of 6.5 million by 2055 under this Concept Plan exercise. This is the planning parameter we use in the last planning exercise and we are keeping this same planning parameter. It is not a target. It is a planning scenario that we have to use. We need to know what is the population parameter in order to formulate our land use strategies – how many schools, how much land to set aside for roads, for housing, and so on. The actual population of Singapore in the years ahead must depend on other factors – on social factors, on economic factors and on political factors. Over the past year, the URA has conducted extensive public consultation and it has heard the hopes and aspirations of Singaporeans from all walks of life. It is now undertaking this challenging task of now reconciling all the different needs of the various agencies and of the people from all walks of life – all within this space of 700 square kilometres.”
“It could receive up to $55,000 in upgrading subsidies, and that is a lot of money. In 2011, around 50,000 households will benefit from these schemes, and a further 300,000 families will benefit in the following five years. These upgrading programmes will help to sustain the value of HDB flats for home owners, ensure that older flats stay relevant to Singaporeans' needs and serve as long-term homes where we can bond with our neighbours and community. On the subject of bonding, I agree with Ms Indranee Rajah that we should encourage residents to be gracious neighbours and promote greater community bonding. A lot of effort has been made. We have handbooks on the "do's and don'ts" of high-rise living. We have Good Neighbour Awards. But I guess if you are not very socially aware, I do not think you are going to read a handbook on the "do's and don'ts" nor are you going to worry about being a good neighbour. Sir, I think we will have to do more but it cannot be just the HDB doing it alone. It cannot be just the Town Councils alone. It has to be also the grassroots leaders, it has got to be the People's Association too. In fact, residents themselves must also set the milieu, the standard. Do not just run to the MP or to HDB every time there is a problem. There are mechanisms in place for mediation. There are mechanisms for grassroots leaders to talk to them, visit each other and so on. It is a process that must start with the residents themselves. We will do the basics. We will do the education, we will do the awareness-raising, but I think it has to be a total effort on the part of everybody concerned. Ultimately, we need the heartware and we need the hardware. For hardware, we will build community spaces.”
“Residents using car parks already implemented with EPS are very happy with this. HDB has also grouped some car parks together so that season parking ticket-holders have access to alternative car parks. If you find that this car park is full, you will be able to park in the next adjoining car park. If demand is high, we will give priority for season parking to the first car of the household, as suggested by Dr Ahmad Magad. So, if you have two or three cars, your first car will enjoy priority for the car park nearest to your flat. It does not mean that you will get a car park just next to your flat, but it means that you have a season parking ticket to park in a red lot in a car park which is near your flat. I know that there have been some residents who have asked, "Can I reserve this lot? It is next to my flat because I am just staying upstairs." The answer is, "Sorry, you cannot." With these measures, HDB expects the localised parking shortages to improve. In fact, the majority of car parks can cater to the first car of the households. Like all things, there is a limit to the number of new car parks that we can provide in land-scarce Singapore. The more fundamental solution is to work with LTA to facilitate greater usage of public transport by integrating rail and roads with HDB estates. Sir, if we take the whole estate renewal effort together, it is a very substantial investment. We are going to spend $1 billion every year for the next 10 years – $10 billion in all. That is the amount of money that the Ministry of Finance has set aside for the estate renewal effort. It is a huge sum of money. Ten billion dollars on a global basis may not mean anything to people. Let us look at the individual household that qualifies for LUP, HIP and NRP together.”
“We have been working with the private estates to incorporate barrier-free and elderly-friendly features when they are selected for the Estate Upgrading Programme (EUP). Like the HDB upgrading programme, there is a budget that we all work with. There is a certain budget per household or unit. There are cost caps. There are norms. The private estates would usually undergo a consultation exercise to prioritise their plans to make the best use of their budget, and this varies from estate to estate. When an estate is selected for EUP and wishes to use the funds for barrier-free accessibility, they can do so. So, when Er Lee Bee Wah nominates, later on, those estates that she is talking about, we will be able to go into details with her. Next, let me touch briefly on car parks. Over the past five years, the season parking demand for HDB car parks has increased along with the car population growth. It has gone up by over 30%. Overall, parking facilities are adequate. Nevertheless, I know that there are localised shortages and some shortages are quite severe. Dr Ahmad Magad and Mr Chiam See Tong asked about the measures to cope with this. There are two ways we can deal with this. One is to increase supply. HDB will be building 5,000 new car park lots, including multi-storey car parks for the next two years at a cost of $66 million. One thousand and six hundred lots have already been completed last year and another 1,800 lots will be completed this year and the rest next year. Secondly, we are going to manage demand. We need to always take this approach of not just increasing supply but also managing demand. One way is to install the electronic parking system (EPS). EPS is able to manage and regulate short-term parking demand in a very effective way.”
“So you just need to lift or push down instead of turning your wrist to twist the faucet. Another optional item is the replacement of the main door and the grille gate. This is also a very popular item among residents. So that is the HIP programme. Mdm Cynthia Phua, Er Lee Bee Wah and Mr Cedric Foo asked what is the pace of these upgrading programmes. Can we do it at a faster pace? Dr Ahmad Magad was concerned about the elderly having to wait a long time for such elderly-friendly improvements to their flats. We have already doubled the number of projects selected annually for NRP and HIP from seven projects to 14 projects per year in the last two years. Again, these are large programmes, and they really require a large budget and so it has to be done depending on our financial resources. Nevertheless, with LUP coming to a close, we will be increasing the pace for HIP. We will double the number of projects selected for HIP to 28 next year and we will increase further to 35 projects per year by 2014. Over the next five years, this will allow us to offer HIP to about 60% of the eligible precincts remaining after this year's selection. Over the next five years, we will be able to offer HIP to 160,000 more households. If we continue at this pace, and if the budget is available, we should be able to finish offering HIP to all eligible precincts in the next 10 years or so. 5.00 pm Apart from our efforts to support accessibility and ageing-in-place in HDB estates, we are also doing more for private estates. Er Lee Bee Wah has been pressing for more to be done in the private estates, and I am glad to inform her that we will be doing so.”
“We will have to study how we can help this group of residents, especially those who are genuinely in need of lift access – those who are frail, those who are handicapped, wheelchair-bound, they really truly need lift access. And if they live in these 200 blocks, what can we do? So we will study how we can help this group of residents. Perhaps relocating them to flats with direct lift access is one way and we will try to target to announce our plans later this year. Sir, as the LUP works tail off, we will shift our focus to another key upgrading programme and this will be the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) which provides new community facilities for residents of all ages to enjoy, and the other one which is the Home Improvement Programme (HIP). In particular, we will focus on the HIP which will provide practical improvements within the flat to enhance living conditions for residents and to support the ageing-in-place of the elderly. There are two categories of improvements under HIP. The first provides essential improvements, such as the repair of spalling concrete that may arise as the flats age, and the replacement of old pipe sockets with new clothes-drying racks. I think Er Lee Bee Wah was very concerned about the elderly not being able to reach out and hang their clothes. This is a new design, and it is going to be provided under the HIP programme under the essential works. Secondly, we will also have a list of optional items which residents can select from the optional items list such as toilet upgrading and this will include the installation of elderly-friendly features such as pedestal toilets, grab bars as well as lever taps which the elderly will find easier to use.”
“HDB also found that many blocks were not as "standard" as they thought and LUP implementation was not as straightforward as they thought. So, again, think out of the box, come up with new designs. For some flats, they came up with what they called a "long bridge" solution. A "long bridge" solution means that you build a lift shaft and then you build this long bridge to the residents’ flats. These solutions can be found in towns like Pasir Ris, Bishan, and Choa Chu Kang. Then they came up with a "short bridge" solution, which I do not have a picture of but it is a variation of the "long bridge" solution. Essentially, it means that you bring lift access through the balconies of the apartments, and we have such flats in Jurong East, Bedok, Yishun and Woodlands. I recount all these just to illustrate that this was not a straightforward exercise by any means. It required a lot of money, it required a lot of effort, it required a lot of innovative thinking on the part of everyone concerned and that is the reason why I think it is such a special exercise to bring lift accessibility to all. So as a result of all these, we now have a significant reduction in the number of blocks that are ineligible for lift upgrading – from 1,000 blocks that could not have LUP because of cost constraint, technical constraints, configuration, etc, we have now reduced it to around 200 blocks. I would like to assure residents that HDB will continue its best to extend LUP to as many blocks as possible. But if in spite of our best efforts we cannot do so, then we will have to think about other options. Mr Wee Siew Kim and Mr Ang Mong Seng asked what these other options are.”
“Because of our ageing population, we also committed in 2005 to complete LUP for eligible blocks within 10 years, that is, by 2014, so that elderly residents can benefit from direct lift access more quickly. Every time I go on walkabouts, the elderly senior citizens will ask me, "When am I going to get lifts? If I wait too long, I won't be around anymore." So we try to do it as quickly as possible. And this effort to bring direct lift access to as many blocks as possible, as quickly as possible, was not just massive in scale but it also called for considerable innovation. HDB piloted many new technologies so that LUP costs could be lowered and more blocks could qualify. Let me give some examples. Members know in Tampines and Pasir Ris, the blocks are affected by height constraints. So, they cannot go above a certain level. As a result of that, these blocks cannot have a machine room at the higher levels to serve additional storeys. It is capped at that level. In 2006, HDB piloted a new lift system called the machine room-less (MRL) system – in other words, no machine rooms required at all. So, MRL for short. As a result of this, we could now implement LUP for such blocks in Tampines and Pasir Ris. Now, residents here are very happy because the top floors are now able to get the lifts. It is one example. Then there are other things like bubble lifts. They experimented with different types of lifts – bubble lifts, small "home lifts" – just to bring down the cost of LUP. Lighter, less foundation works required, less structural costs, and so we could roll out LUP to more low-rise blocks. And we have implemented such lifts in Yishun and Toa Payoh.”
“I am pleased to announce that the final batch of precincts will be selected this year and we are on track to complete LUP for all eligible blocks by 2014. This is the target that we set in 2005 and we are on track and we are going to achieve it. It has been a huge, huge exercise – a massive exercise. It costs the Government $5.5 billion for the whole LUP exercise over the 10 years. This is the cost of building the North East Line (NEL) and the Sengkang LRT combined. It involved many man-years of planning, design, consultation and construction. So on behalf of all residents who have benefited, young and old, I would like to thank all those who have helped to make LUP possible – HDB engineers, architects, planners, Branch Offices, Town Council staff, advisers, grassroots leaders, consultants, contractors and their workers, both foreign and local. As we near the end of the programme, it is timely to take stock of the long 10-year journey we have undertaken. Over the years, we have significantly increased the number of blocks that will benefit under LUP. We first announced LUP in 2001, as I said. At that time, we set the target of bringing direct lift access to all the high-rise HDB blocks. There were about 4,400 HDB blocks. These were blocks that were built before 1990 because after 1990 we already had lift access. Then in 2005, because of the positive feedback and more requests from Members of the House, we extended the LUP to another 900 low-rise blocks, if they could be done within the cost cap. If you recall, at that time, blocks having four or five storeys and below were not eligible for LUP. We changed that in 2005.”
“Ms Indranee Rajah suggested incorporating more open spaces in HDB estates and also incorporating or integrating sports facilities at the precinct level. I think these are good suggestions and we will look into them. I will also ask HDB architects to join her in her walkabouts if she agrees to sit with our architects when they do their planning as well so that there will be a cross-fertilisation of ideas between architects and lawyers and MPs. I think it will be a very interesting exercise to see what comes out. Let me now talk about another very important and a very major programme that we have been rolling out in our HDB estates, and that is the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP). The ROH is a very big programme. It will rejuvenate selected areas holistically. It will take time to roll out to all the estates. I assure Mr Liang Eng Hwa that the ROH programme will reach Bukit Panjang, sooner or later, depending on the budget but it will reach Bukit Panjang. But, in the meantime, other residents can continue to enjoy and benefit from HDB's other core upgrading programmes. ROH is not the only upgrading programme that we have. There are many others. So let me now talk about some of the other programmes. Dr Ahmad Magad highlighted the fact that our population is a fast-ageing one. Therefore, we need to roll out barrier-free accessibility for the elderly Singaporeans much faster. And that is exactly what we have done. We had introduced the LUP in 2001, it was 10 years ago, and we have made very good progress. Mr Ang Mong Seng asked about the progress, and let me report to the House what we have achieved so far. To date, 4,900 of the eligible blocks or 96% of eligible blocks have been offered LUP.”
“The Members of Parliament in the area were wondering whether there are enough flats, enough people moving in, would we be able to start the MRT station, and so on. But, HDB pressed on and launched new flats when demand picked up. And in 2007, not only did we pursue that or continue with Punggol 21, we updated our vision with Punggol 21 Plus. And HDB worked with PUB to construct a 4.2 km waterway through the town, something that has never been done before. It is a waterway that not only looks beautiful – it would add to the beauty of the town, the aesthetics of the town – but it also serves a very important purpose and that is to connect the two reservoirs. 4.45 pm By the year end, 23,000 flats will be completed; including developments like Punggol Periwinkle as shown on the screen and the Treelodge@Punggol. Residents of Treelodge@Punggol recently received their keys from Deputy Prime Minister Teo and were very happy. Many of these developments boast HDB’s new housing features like green roofs and podium carparks. Another 12,000 of these flats are going to be completed by 2015. Punggol is a good example of the efforts that we have taken to not just build a town but to create green spaces for people to relax, to reconnect with nature even as we become more built-up. The Punggol Waterway Park and Sungei Serangoon Park will be ready by June 2011. And the 17-km North East Park Connector Loop will complete by the end of this year. These are some of the pictures [indicating]. They are not artist's impressions, they are actually real. We are going to find new ways of rejuvenating and revitalising our HDB estates.”
“Apart from the Town Centre, the neighbourhood centres will be spruced up and revitalised. To help residents fully enjoy these developments, MND needs to make sure that there is improved connectivity in the area. This is a very large area. We will improve the connectivity so that residents from as far as Bukit Batok and Bukit Timah can cycle, walk or jog all the way to the Jurong Lake along the new pedestrian and cycling networks that will be built. The ROH plans will directly benefit 700,000 residents, who live in the area, and many others who will work, visit and spend time in these areas. We will spend at least $1 billion to remake these areas over the next five years. We have also made considerable progress with the first batch of ROH towns. Let me just present the report card very quickly. First of all, Members will remember Yishun was one of them. It is a middle-aged town. Yishun is very different today with the completion of developments such as the revamped Northpoint where MND has co-located a library; the new Khoo Teck Puat Hospital just next to the PUB's water catchment and the ABC Waters works at Lower Seletar Reservoir. Dawson Estate, which is one of the older estates, will also see a fresh lease of life with the injection of new generation housing, which will be amidst greenery. Lastly, our efforts to build a new town in Punggol, which is our newest town, have begun to bear fruit. When we first embarked on the Punggol 21 plan – that was 1996 – Punggol was just a forested area with a few roads and fish farms. When the Asian financial crisis struck in 1997, the take-up of flats slowed all over Singapore, including Punggol. Many people questioned whether Punggol would ever take off.”
“Thirdly, existing homes will be upgraded and new housing like this waterfront development in Hougang will be introduced [indicating]. There are so many pictures of Hougang because this is one of three ROH Towns. There are similarly nice pictures in other areas which I did not show. Fourthly, as part of the ROH, even as MND rejuvenates all these areas, MND is going to preserve the heritage, or what makes each area special. This is also very important. MND does not want to make every town look exactly the same in Singapore. For Jurong Lake district, residents can already see some of the developments coming up. At Jurong East Town Centre, the former Jurong Entertainment Centre will be re-developed into JCube by 2012. By 2013, a new pedestrian mall will link Jurong East MRT to Lakeside. The Jurong General Hospital and Community Hospital will be ready in 2014 and 2015 respectively, while the new Continuing Education and Training (CET) West Campus will open in 2013. To catalyse the growth of Jurong Lake district, MND and two of our agencies, AVA and BCA, will relocate to the area as the anchor tenant in Lend Lease’s development. Lend Lease recently tendered for the site successfully and they are going to develop this mixed-use development. MND and its agencies will be an anchor tenant in their development. When this is completed in 2014, the mixed-use project will feature green spaces and roof gardens. It will inject new lifestyle and retail buzz to the town centre. By the way, it is not the whole building for MND. It is only the top portion of the building [Laughter ]. The other portions are for shops and retail. It will make a big difference to the Jurong Lake District and catalyse the area.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, I have talked about helping Singaporeans own their homes and how we can secure home ownership for the low income. Besides these, our longer-term challenge is to remake our heartlands so that they remain relevant and sustainable homes for our people. Let me first of all share with Members what Remaking Our Heartlands is all about. Today, we have various estate renewal programmes – Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP), Home Improvement Programme (HIP), Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP), and Remaking Our Heartland (ROH) programme. If I had a quiz for Members here, I do not think many Members will be able to get the acronyms all right. These are very important acronyms because they affect all of us. The most comprehensive effort that we have today is the ROH programme. I recently announced the second batch of ROH programmes for East Coast, Hougang and Jurong Lake. Mr Cedric Foo and Mr Liang Eng Hwa have asked what we can expect under ROH. It is a very comprehensive programme. For each of these areas – Jurong, Hougang and East Coast – the plans are going to be very comprehensive and cover four key aspects. First, it is the town and neighbourhood centres [indicating slide ]. This is a picture of the East Coast ROH at Bedok Town Centre. Bedok Town Centre is going to be rejuvenated. It will include new mixed developments for multiple uses like commercial, residential and transportation. Hougang Town Centre is going to be another example. Secondly, outdoor recreational spaces will be expanded so that residents can enjoy active lifestyles and gather as a community. Members will see the before and after pictures on the screen [indicating].”
“So from a situation where he had to pay $100 for a 1-room rental flat, he is now going to buy a 2-room flat that he can call his own and he does not have to pay any cash. That is how the SHG is going to help low-income families like him, and how we can finally help them realise their home-ownership aspirations. Let us also be aware that housing grants alone cannot be the panacea – the solution for all problems faced by low-income families. I think Members who have spoken have cautioned us on this and it is a valid concern. The problems that are faced by low-income families – those applying for rental flats, those that we see in our Meet-the-People Sessions – are complex. So we need to take a more holistic approach to help them. I will ask my Senior Parliamentary Secretary to elaborate on this later. He chaired a special Workgroup last year to look into the overall needs of these families. Sir, let me reassure the House that the Government will look after the low-income families, but the help we give should not be a lifetime of rental housing. Social mobility and the hope of home ownership is an integral part of the Singapore story. We will give hope of a better life to successive generations. Sir, I will now ask Dr Maliki to elaborate on the other parts and to respond to other Members' concerns. *Cols. 3597-3604.”
“I have not shown another level of grant, which is the CPF Housing Grant, which is used to buy a resale flat. That is not in this chart. Neither have I included the implicit subsidy that is inherent in a new HDB flat. So these are only the AHG and the SHG. The SHG will now provide extra help on top of the AHG to low-income households. Households with income of $1,500 and below will get $20,000 SHG and $40,000 AHG. So, in total, they will be getting $60,000. And if you go progressively down that stepped ladder, those earning between $1,500 and $1,750 will get $50,000 in grants (AHG plus SHG), and so on. It will be staggered progressively so that a household earning $2,250 will get $35,000, the total of AHG and SHG. If you look at the red line, that is the new CPF grant scheme, both the Additional Housing Grant and the Special Housing Grant, that will be made available to low-income as well as middle-income families. Let me now take the House through a concrete example of how SHG can help lower-income families move towards home ownership. This is a real example. Mr Rosli and his wife, living in a 1-room rental flat in Bukit Merah since 1996, have two children. Mr Rosli is the sole breadwinner. He earns about $1,000 a month, with a job that pays him CPF. Currently, he is paying $110 in cash for rental every month. With SHG, he can now realise his dream of owning his own home. He will get $20,000 SHG, and $40,000 AHG. Together, he will get $60,000 in grants. The flat costs him $100,000, so he needs a loan of $40,000. The monthly instalment for that $40,000 loan is $181. His current CPF Ordinary Account contribution is $186 – that means he can pay for the loan totally with his CPF contribution. He does not need to have come up with any cash outlay at all.”
“That will mean that low-income first-timers, who are eligible for rental flats, can now look forward to buying their own flats with some help. 3.45 pm Thirdly, the SHG is meant to help this very targeted low-income group to own their basic flats for financial prudence. That is the reason why the SHG can only be used to buy standard 2-room and 3-room flats in non-mature estates. Specifically, families that are earning $1,500 and below may only use the SHG to purchase 2-room flats. So at incomes of $1,500 and below, you will get $20,000 but you can only buy a 2-room flat. It cannot be used to buy resale flats, premium flats – Dawson, The Pinnacle@Duxton and the Punggol Waterway. It cannot be used to buy flats in mature estates. Regarding Mdm Ho Geok Choo's concern that families may buy flats that they are not financially ready for, HDB's credit assessment will continue to apply to prevent this. All of these schemes – the AHG and SHG – will still be subject to credit assessment. It is only prudent that we do so and that will prevent people who are really not ready to buy a flat, to be tempted to do so just because there is a grant available. So we still need them to repay the loan if they do take it. What does all this mean, in terms of total housing grants for a household? Let me add it all up and take the House through. First of all, there is the Additional Housing Grant that we announced a few years ago and we last enhanced it in 2009. Households earning up to $5,000 today already enjoy an Additional Housing Grant of between $5,000 and $40,000. If Members look at that Chart* there [indicating ], they will see that it is stepped. It is $40,000 at the maximum level and it goes down to $5,000.”
“Many Members have asked questions about the Special Housing Grant (SHG) that Minister for Finance has announced in his Budget speech. Mr Sam Tan, Mdm Ho Geok Choo and Mr Ang Mong Seng asked in a more general way, how the Government can do more to help low-income households own their first flat. Indeed this is what we intend to do. First, HDB has increased the supply of smaller flats – 2-room and 3-room flats – by 37%, one-third more, to 4,800 units in 2011. Mr Ang Mong Seng was asking this specifically. This will give more choice to lower-income families who wish to buy their first homes and also for the elderly who wish to downsize, monetise their existing flats, and keep the money for retirement. The next thing we will do is to introduce that new Special CPF Housing Grant (SHG) that Minister for Finance announced in his speech. This new SHG is going to further help low-income families buy their first flat. This grant will range from $5,000 to $20,000 for families with household incomes up to $2,250. Let me elaborate on the policy objectives and features of this grant. Firstly, it is going to be a targeted subsidy for low-income families. So, that is the reason why we have set the income ceiling for the SHG at $2,250 a month. At this level, we will be benefiting about one in four Singaporean households. Secondly, for progressivity, the SHG will be tiered. The lowest tier will be $5,000 and go up to $20,000 based on household income. The cut-off for the highest tier of SHG is set at $1,500. This incidentally coincides with the income ceiling for rental flats, and that is the reason why we set it at $1,500 to provide the highest level of SHG.”
“We must help them in various ways: to improve their skills-level and incomes, so that they too can join the ranks of home owners in Singapore. We all know of many people who have risen successfully from humble beginnings in a rental flat. My Senior Parliamentary Secretary, Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, is one of them. I have asked him and he gave me permission to tell his story. Dr Maliki grew up in a 1-room rental flat in Toa Payoh, with his parents and eight siblings. Dr Maliki and his two elder brothers used to sleep along the corridors because there was not enough space in the flat. Despite the hard times, Dr Maliki remembers that his father always paid his rent and utility bills promptly. In those days, there were no rental rebates and U-Save rebates. He paid his bills promptly. But Dr Maliki’s father eventually saved enough and bought a 3-room flat in Toa Payoh in the late 1970s. He tells me that he still did not get his own bedroom, but he slept in the living room now. He moved from the corridor to the living room. He finally bought his own place and had his own room, when he got married. I did not ask him if it was private property or HDB flat, but I guess it was an HDB flat. I believe Dr Maliki’s personal experience of social mobility has shaped his dedication to social work and service to other Singaporeans. But his story is not unique, and that is the beauty of Singapore. There are many like him who have worked hard and achieved home ownership and more over time. Since 2007, 1,350 rental tenants have moved out of rental flats into their own homes. This is the Singapore story of hope of social mobility that we must try to uphold.”
“Such cases are put before an Appeals Committee for further review. This committee is headed by my Senior Parliamentary Secretary and also includes a panel of MPs. There is an independent assessment of the merits or otherwise of the case. Mr Lim Biow Chuan asked if HDB rental rates could be aligned to per capita income. The public rental rates today are already very low, ranging from $30 a month for a 1-room flat for somebody who is at a very low or no income to $240 for those with higher income, who have applied for bigger flats, or have already bought and sold his flat and on compassionate grounds, HDB grants him a rental flat. Not every case fits into the standard norms. HDB has a process where HDB will exercise flexibility on the rental increase for families who are really in genuine financial difficulty. The difficulty that HDB often faces is how to assess whether there is genuine financial difficulty. Many a time, we come across appeals and we know the person is really not too badly off but they come to try their luck. HDB will put each appeal through a process and get them to submit relevant documents, and so on. The bottomline is that HDB cannot open up the rental scheme to all and sundry that comes in and applies for it. I hope Members appreciate that. Next, I want to talk about promoting home ownership. I have spoken many times at length about the advantages of home ownership over rental flats. Even for HDB's public rental tenants, HDB should help them work towards home ownership, where possible for them. We know that families are work-capable and if they are work-capable, they should not be resigned to rental housing for the rest of their life.”
“Dr Ahmad Magad asked if the waiting time for rental flats can be further reduced. I am pleased to inform him that with our two measures, HDB can now allocate rental flats more quickly and in a more targeted manner to the neediest families. The average waiting time for rental flats today is now eight months, and it was 21 months two years ago. It has come down from 21 months to eight months. I expect that this will decline further because there will be more rental flats coming onstream in the next year. The assistance that we give, the subsidy that is inherent in a public rental flats, is very substantial. Although the total sum of the subsidy may not be so well-known, there is an implicit recognition of it and that is why there is very high demand for rental flats. Rental subsidies, if we take the average stay of a family in a rental flat which is about 10 years - the total subsidies for the whole 10 years, it can be about $100,000. Last year, HDB received 14,000 appeals from 7,000 appellants for rental flats. There are a lot of repeat cases. Of these, about 90% had sold their flats and had received substantial proceeds, or they had family who could support them, or they could not meet the basic eligibility criteria for rental flats. Hence, their appeals were not successful. I cannot stress enough that there is a need to safeguard these heavily subsidised flats for truly needy families, who have no other housing options. Because if we do not, no matter how strong the safety net is, it is going to collapse. If all the 7,000 cases, who are appealing today, are all granted rental housing, I do not think we will be able to cope. That said, I have put in place an appeals process for cases that Members may come across that merit special consideration.”
“Mr Chairman, Sir, we know that even as most Singaporeans rejoice in our extraordinary economic recovery, there are some families who are not able to ride on this growth. So, the question before us really is how can we cater to these families? How do we bring housing security to these families? This is why the issues that have been raised by Members are very important. I will now talk about the housing safety net for needy households who do not have family support and who cannot afford a flat currently despite their best efforts. I am talking about the HDB’s public rental flats. They are our final safety net for housing. Mr Teo Ser Luck asked for an update on the rental flat situation. This is a safety net that we have strengthened continuously and we will continue to do so. There are two ways in which we have strengthened this safety net. The first is in increasing the supply of rental flats. Compared to 2007, HDB will be building another 7,000 rental flats by 2012, almost 20% more, and that will bring total supply to about 50,000. If there is a need to build more, we will. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. So, that is the first way – increase the supply. But like all things, if you increase the supply and do not manage the demand, you often find that increased supply will generate increased demand, and it will overwhelm the safety net. So, we have also tightened the eligibility criteria for rental flats, so that we focus only on the neediest families – the families who really do not have other housing options. Because of this, the number of eligible applications that we have received every month has decreased from about 300 a month in 2008 to 190 in 2010, which is about one-third, reduced by 30%.”
“Lo and behold! That was actually a substandard-sized bed. If a full-sized bed was placed there instead, you would not be able to close the door! [Laughter.] 2.45 pm Our guidelines aim to pre-empt such practices from emerging here. I am not saying it has happened here but let us pre-empt such practices. The second key area of enhancement is to require developers to provide the prices of units on sale as well as the transacted prices of the units in a more timely manner. This is what Mr Lim Biow Chuan mentioned in his speech. All these changes we are going to make will allow buyers to have more comprehensive, more accurate and more timely information so that we can make the market work better as a whole. URA will be embarking on a public consultation exercise before finalising the proposals. Sir, in conclusion, the Government recognises the importance of the property market. It is both an engine of growth and also a provider of homes for Singaporeans. Good homes, comfortable homes, homes for Singaporeans. Its stable growth is necessary to ensure that our economy and our homes are sustainable for the long term. I would like to assure Members that we will take all necessary steps to ensure its stability, and for the general masses looking to buy a place to stay or for long-term investment, I would urge them to look ahead, think carefully and choose wisely. For the first-time young couples, rest assured that the Government will help you set up your first home. HDB rental flats”
“" This is the kind of standards and agents whose reputation we must uphold in the industry because they know the consequences, rules and regulations, and they make it an effort to explain this to their clients. Going forward, CEA will focus on raising industry's standards and promoting public education for flat buyers and sellers. Salespersons will be required to take mandatory development courses so that they are up-to-date on the latest regulations. CEA will also conduct seminars and publish consumer guides for home buyers and sellers. Ms Sylvia Lim asked about the regulation of managing agents that currently manage strata residential properties. My Ministry, together with BCA, will be reviewing the Building Maintenance and Strata Management Act this year. And this is one area that we will be studying as part of the review. As for developers, Mr Ong Ah Heng asked how we can help buyers make better decisions. The URA will be introducing enhancements to the Housing Developers (Control and Licensing) Act and the Housing Developers Rules to give buyers better access to accurate and timely information about the market and also about the property that they are buying. We are considering new guidelines on show flats and sales materials. Firstly, for show flats, some of the guidelines will include having site plans drawn to scale, and not having show flats misrepresent the actual size of the units. I remember I visited a showflat in Hong Kong where the developer, apart from the usual tricks like removing walls, putting tape on the floor and putting glass instead of solid brick walls, went one step further. It had put in a substandard-sized bed into its rooms. When you walk into the room, you saw a master bedroom with a bed and there appears to be plenty of walking space.”
“I urge flat buyers to exercise prudence, choose a flat within your means and when the time comes, do not give it up. Let me now talk about how we will structure the market to make it work better. Besides stabilising the property market, we will make structural improvements so that the market works better for developers and buyers. First of all, estate agents. The Council for Estate Agencies (CEA) started operations in October 2010. Mr Zainudin asked for an update of the CEA's work. One of its first tasks was to license about 1,400 property firms and about 31,000 salespersons in the industry. CEA's regulations apply to all estate agencies and salespersons who operate in Singapore, regardless of the location of the property being sold. Members will appreciate that this is a massive effort given the huge numbers involved. I appreciate Mr Zainduin's concerns about the quality of salespersons and I wish to assure him that CEA is strict and rigorous in its licensing. It is important because homes are a very big ticket item, and we must safeguard the interests of home buyers and sellers as well as uphold the reputation of the industry. While a few bad hats have been featured in the papers, I think it is only fair that we recognise the many good and diligent salespersons earning an honest living. Not all are bad hats. A couple who had sold their 3-room flat in Hougang to upgrade to a larger flat in Woodlands wrote this letter to compliment their agent. I quote, "He honestly told us that our case was delicate as we were upgrading with very little resources ... he kept stressing that everything must be verified and approved before proceeding to sell. Otherwise, we will sleep in the void deck!”
“Where it is possible, we can allow it. But being selective also means that their needs are not so urgent and, therefore, they should be prepared to wait a little longer for their ideal flat. I have had many appeals, emails and so on from people who have been "unsuccessful many times". They always say, "I am in urgent need of housing. Please give me priority and allow me to select directly." Invariably, when we check, we will find that either they had been invited to select a flat and had given up the chance, or they are very selective in their applications. They only select certain areas and types of flats – The Pinnacle@Duxton, Dawson, Waterway in Punggol. Over three years, they probably applied five times when we had more than 30 BTO exercises. We had a case of a Madam T. She was very lucky. She applied for five sale exercises in the last three years and she was invited to select a flat on four occasions. She did not select any of the 467 flats she was offered in these four exercises. Why? I am not sure. There were 300 applicants who similarly rejected multiple chances to select a flat in 2010 alone. We have asked HDB to see if we can tighten the details of procedures to give genuine flat buyers with urgent needs a much better chance than applicants like Madam T. With the significant ramp up in BTO supply, the improved selection process, shorter waiting time and so on, most flat applicants should be able to select their flats and collect their keys sooner. I know Singaporeans, especially first-timers, are concerned that flat prices have risen too fast due to the sharp economic recovery. With the measures that I have outlined, first-timers will be able to get on the first rung of the public housing ladder.”
“Today, flat buyers are told where the next BTO projects are allocated about one month ahead. In the press release for this month, it will state that BTO projects will be launched next month in certain locations. As a result, some flat buyers apply for multiple projects because they are not sure about the projects in subsequent months. I have asked HDB to increase the visibility of upcoming BTO launches, from the current one month to two or even three months ahead. If we can do this, we can help flat buyers make more informed decisions. Under a balloting system, I recognise that some applicants may be less lucky and may not be able to select a flat after multiple tries. Today, our records show that the majority of first-timers get a chance to select within two or three tries, if they had balloted consistently. But there are some who may not be so lucky. This is consistent with a balloting system. Apart from additional chances, HDB will offer balance flats on a case-by-case basis to deserving cases. This will include those who have applied multiple times unsuccessfully for BTO flats in non-mature estates and are in urgent need of housing. To date, HDB has made such an offer to about 400 households but only 30% of them took up HDB's offer. They say, "yes, I am in urgent need of housing" but when the offer is made, 30% of them said "yes" and 70% said "no, I am not in urgent need of housing after all". While there are "unlucky" applicants, there are also applicants who repeatedly reject chances to select for various reasons – low floor, facing school, and so on. In 2010, over one in three first-timers invited to select a flat did not do so. There is nothing wrong in being choosy. It is understandable that each wants the best for himself and his family.”
“I have also asked HDB to look into shortening the time it takes to start selection for the BTO flats. Currently, it takes about nine weeks from the launch of a project to the start of selection. As Mr Lim has pointed out, applicants do not know if their current applications are successful and they apply many times subsequently. If we can shorten this selection process, then applicants will be able to know the results of their previous application, and they can then decide, "yes, I want to apply" or "no, I do not need to apply". With effect from March, which is this month, the time from launch of BTO projects to start of flat selection will be shortened to four weeks. From nine weeks to four weeks. With this, flat applicants will be informed of the queue number in their current application before the next launch. This will make a big difference. But I need to caution that shortening this BTO process also has its trade-offs, like everything else. HDB will have to shorten the application period from two weeks to one first. We also have to do eligibility checks concurrently with the balloting. It works like this: as you ballot, HDB will do the eligibility checks. It may happen that some applicants receive ballot numbers and are told, "please come and select". But later on, when HDB has completed the eligibility checks, it may say, "Sorry. You are not eligible." Applicants may then be disappointed. So, we seek everybody's understanding that this move will benefit most BTO applicants but some may be inconvenienced. I hope the buyers understand this. To improve the BTO process further, I will ask HDB to provide more information to facilitate better forward planning by flat buyers. What do I mean by this?”
“He asked if we could revert back to the old queue system. In fact, the system in 1992 was actually a balloting system – I do not know whether he realised that, but I have checked it was actually a balloting system. For those who think that the queue system would offer greater certainty, I would like to remind them that, when the demand was high, the waiting time in the queue was as long as seven years for a flat. This was around the period 1996/1997. The fact is, no matter what system we use – a queue system or a BTO system – if demand is overwhelming, there will always be the constraint and problem about how to allocate a limited supply. The solution to that is a combination of increasing the supply and managing the demand. This is what we are trying to do. So, with a significant ramp up in supply and with the improved selection process that I will talk about later, I believe that most flat applicants will be able to select their flats sooner and collect their keys faster. How do we intend to shorten the BTO process? I think Mr Lim Biow Chuan also asked this. I have earlier announced that the BTO process is going to be streamlined so that flat buyers can collect the keys to their new homes six months earlier. We are talking about a normal waiting period of three years. Buyers of projects which are launched from this year – mid-2011 onwards – will generally have to wait two-and-a-half years from booking to collection of keys, instead of three years. This is as much as HDB has been able to shorten the waiting time because there is still a physical constraint in building those flats. But they will try to shorten it as much as possible and they have managed to shorten it by six months, which is considerable.”
“In fact, they have already launched the first DBSS project – Adora Green in Yishun – where the new income ceiling will apply. Third, and this is new, we will raise the income ceiling for 3-room BTO flats in non-mature estates from $3,000 to $5,000. Currently, the income ceiling is $3,000 and we are going to raise it to $5,000. Why? We want to provide lower- to middle-income households with more housing options. *Cols. 3595-3596. We have also increased the number of 3-room flats offered by 1,200, or a 50% increase over last year, to cater for this larger group of buyers. 2.30 pm Mr Ong Kian Min asked about raising the $8,000 income ceiling. Let me say that I believe that this remains relevant because it caters to about eight to 10 households in Singapore. This is still generous by any measure. Our housing subsidies are not limitless. We have to work within the budget that we have and that is the reason why our subsidies are targeted to offer more help for the lower-income such as AHG and the Special Housing Grant, which I will talk about later. Nevertheless, we recognise that the households or families with higher incomes may need more housing options and this is why we have extended options to the DBSS flats as well. So, last year, the income ceiling for purchase of DBSS flats was also raised to $10,000. We will regularly review the housing subsidies for different groups and ensure that they remain relevant and always within the constraints of the housing budget. Dr Lim Wee Kiak related his own very interesting experience about purchasing a flat in 1992. 1992 was the time when demand for flats was low. If he had tried to buy that same flat in 1997, I think he would not have had such a similarly pleasant experience.”