Mariam Jaafar on public housing motions

There are three main problems to solve in today’s public housing market - a BTO shortage and long waiting times; a shifting BTO mix with a higher proportion of BTOs in mature estates; and high resale prices, partly driven by an imbalance in supply and demand. MP Mariam Jaafar gave this assessment in Parliament on Tuesday (Feb 7). Focusing her speech on getting first-time buyers on the home ownership ladder, she offered several suggestions. First, maintain a safety stock of readily available or Zero Waiting Time BTO flats, while having a baseload of BTO and Short Waiting Time flats. This would increase the responsiveness of housing supply, which will help achieve better outcomes including helping to moderate house prices, provide for population growth and improve choice. Second, build shorter-tenure flats of, say, 50 years. This will allow cheaper flats while shifting the market further away from speculation and helping to set price levels for flats of different tenures. Ms Mariam also spoke of the importance of unlocking the resale market. To that end, she suggested increasing the Proximity Grant for first-time buyers in areas with high BTO application rates, and requiring HDB owners to sell their flats if they own private property. Given the social benefit, she said this measure could be sweetened by offering breaks on stamp duty for selling their HDB flat. Alternatively, such owners could be banned from renting their flats, which would likely induce many to sell at more reasonable prices.