Commentary: What October’s BTO launch will tell us about Singaporeans’ priorities

MITIGATING THE” Game” EFFECT

With more incentives, Plus and Prime BTO condos will come with tighter selling regulations.

Users will only be able to sell those flats ten years down the road to people who have at least one Singaporean national or a single Singaporean, as long as they adhere to the family salary cap requirements. For individuals, the income ceiling has been set at S$ 14, 000 per quarter for both accommodation types. For songs, it is S$ 14, 000 and S$ 7, 000 for Plus and Prime cottages, respectively.

After the MOP, they are not permitted to rent out complete cottages, but sub-letting of extra bedrooms is.

These regulations are intended to stop customers who do not intend to live in these alternative apartments but instead simply use them to make money off the selling business. Regular spinning activities by a dozen unscrupulous buyers who treat the sponsored public accommodation as “lotteries”, if not curbed, may destabilise housing prices, driving irrational exuberance.

Nine out of ten Singaporeans now live in public housing units, which is a feat admirable in many nations where there are still challenges to meet the housing needs of a tiny minority of lower-income families in their societies. As a result, the HDB’s homeownership program has successfully enabled this achievement.

Making different accommodation options available to the masses and enhancing the quality of these families ‘ lives could be made more inclusive and equitable by the new HDB categorisation platform as a social enabler.

Sing Tien Foo is the Provost’s Chair Professor at the Department of Real Estate, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore. The author’s opinions do not necessarily reflect those of NUS and its members.