SINGAPORE: In the second instalment of their video series on public housing in Singapore, Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim went back in history to explain how the current housing issues came about.
The first efforts to provide housing were massively successful, the Sengkang GRC MP said. From only 8.8 per cent of the population living in HDB flats, the figure is now over 80 per cent. “In the 1990s, Singapore experienced a construction and property boom. House prices between 1990 and 1996 rose by more than threefold. In order to meet this demand, HDB started to build all over the island. Unfortunately, as many of us know, in 1997, we had the Asian Financial Crisis. Prices of all assets, including housing, collapsed.And around the same time, BTO or Built to Order Flats were introduced.
He added, “Unfortunately, in 2017, then Minister for National Development Lawrence Wong suggested that the SERS programme would only apply to a small fraction of HDB flats. Hence, for the vast majority of Singaporeans, this would not be available for their retirement incomes, and their flats would eventually expire with a value of zero.”