Families intending to buy resale flats to live with or near their parents, or seniors who plan to do the same with their married children, are set to receive S$20,000 under the new Proximity Housing Grant (PHG).
First announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National Day Rally yesterday (Aug 23), the scheme, which kicked in today, will replace the Higher-Tier CPF Housing Grant that previously gave first-timer families S$10,000 and singles S$5,000 on top of the basic S$30,000 or S$15,000 CPF Housing Grant they receive respectively.
Under the scheme, singles will receive grant of S$10,000, half of what a family gets. Recipients of the grant will need to live in their flats for at least five years after receiving the grant, as well the families they live near or with. The grant is available to Singaporean families once, regardless of their household income, any previous subsidies enjoyed or private property ownership.
Details for this scheme, as well as for a slew of other measures announced by Mr Lee, were released by the Ministry of National Development (MND) and Housing and Development Board (HDB) at a media briefing today. The other measures include raised income ceilings when buying new HDB flats and Executive Condominium units, and bigger Special CPF Housing Grants.
While more are now eligible to buy flats from the HDB, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday sought to assuaged fears that a crush of buyers could outstrip supply and drive up queue times for Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, or prices for ECs.
Emphasising that MND and HDB will monitor the market to ramp up supply if necessary, Mr Khaw said that the market would adjust itself, with buyers flowing both ways between HDB flats and EC units.
“Some EC buyers may move into BTOs, some BTO applicants may go up to ECs. At the border (between) EC and (private) condos, there will also be movement. Key point is because we have leverage over supply and we can always adjust the supply, expand and reduce as necessary,” said Mr Khaw.
On whether developers of EC would capitalise on the higher income ceilings of buyers and raise prices of units, Mr Khaw said developers should be looking at lowering prices, to balance the increased supply of EC units in a market where demand has largely been satisfied.
And dispelling notions that the measures were introduced to sweeten the ground before the upcoming General Election, Mr Khaw said it was the right time to introduce these adjustments after having cleared the queue of first-timers. Such measures could not have been introduced three or four years ago, he noted.
“When I took over four and a half years ago, we focused on specific groups where the need was greatest. And that’s how we incrementally adjusted the policies… So now that the first-timers, newly-weds problems are largely resolved, it allows me now to begin to look at other groups – middle income groups and higher income groups … and going forward… including those who are renting HDB flats,” he said.
Adding he “could not care less when GE is”, Mr Khaw said problems must be solved and schemes will be launched “once I’m confident that those are practical scheme(s)”.
He also clarified that shifting the focus towards the higher income groups does not be at the expense of the lower income groups. “Even if we expand upwards to a higher income group, we are also improving or enhancing the subsidy for the low income group. But what it means is in totality, more Singaporeans get to benefit from housing subsidy,” he said.
To that end, the September BTO and Sale of Balance Flats exercise will be slightly delayed — but still held in the same month — to ensure that the next round of buyers will be able to benefit from the changes, said Mr Khaw.
Source: www.todayonline.com
