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Govt pledges enough flats for Singaporeans

By Romesh Navaratnarajah:Housing undersupply could become a thing of the past as the government has pledged enough HDB flats for all Singaporeans, even as the population is projected to reach 6.5 to 6.9 million by 2030.

In Parliament yesterday, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan stated that about 200,000 new units are currently being built and will likely be ready in four years.

"We will continue to launch more BTO (Build-to-Order) flats, ECs (executive condominiums) and land sales for private condos, for as long as demand remains strong. There is enough land for such new homes to be built."

Mr Khaw added that with the BTO supply ramped up to 25,000 flats annually; the Ministry of National Development (MND) has cleared the backlog of first-timers.

Meanwhile, the introduction of the Parenthood Priority Scheme (PPS) will give first-timer married couples priority to secure flats, especially to those with children and possibly, those without children in the future.

"In short, young Singaporeans, you do not have to worry. There are enough flats for everyone and you will not have to wait too long," said Mr Khaw.

But he acknowledged that many home buyers are concerned about rising prices.

To ease such fears, MND has "suspended the practice of pegging BTO flats to resale prices. And that is how we have stabilised the BTO prices – increasing the Government subsidy when resale prices rise, instead of following the resale prices up".

The government could also introduce further property cooling measures, if necessary, to regulate the market.

"For the longer term, we have reserved sufficient land to develop another half a million housing units. If fully realised, this will increase our housing stock today at a proportion nearly double the projected population growth," Mr Khaw noted. Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@allproperty.com.sg Related Stories: HDB BTO flats draw more applicants

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