Pegging BTO flat prices to construction costs will take Singapore backwards: Desmond Lee
HDB prices BTO flats by determining their market value based on factors such as location and size, and then applies a discount to keep them affordable.ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Ng Keng Gene
UPDATED MAR 07, 2025, 08:05 PM
SINGAPORE – The Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) proposed “affordable homes scheme”, where Build-To-Order (BTO) flats are priced primarily on construction costs, will take Singapore backwards to a time when flats served as just shelter and not an asset, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said on March 7.
“They want to go backwards, to the time (when)housing was a shelter and an expense, and did not serve as a store of value and assurance for retirement, where Singaporeans did not have a stake – when they leave, according to the affordable homes scheme, just return (the) keys and move on,” said Mr Lee, who questioned if this was really what Singaporeans wanted.
Mr Lee said that this will be “a major change from the social compact we have had all these decades”, noting that it was in the Housing Board’s early years, from 1968 to 1987, that flat prices were fixed to recover costs.
Pegging BTO flat prices to construction costs will take Singapore backwards: Desmond Lee
HDB prices BTO flats by determining their market value based on factors such as location and size, and then applies a discount to keep them affordable.ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Ng Keng Gene
UPDATED MAR 07, 2025, 08:05 PM
SINGAPORE – The Progress Singapore Party’s (PSP) proposed “affordable homes scheme”, where Build-To-Order (BTO) flats are priced primarily on construction costs, will take Singapore backwards to a time when flats served as just shelter and not an asset, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said on March 7.
“They want to go backwards, to the time (when)housing was a shelter and an expense, and did not serve as a store of value and assurance for retirement, where Singaporeans did not have a stake – when they leave, according to the affordable homes scheme, just return (the) keys and move on,” said Mr Lee, who questioned if this was really what Singaporeans wanted.
Mr Lee said that this will be “a major change from the social compact we have had all these decades”, noting that it was in the Housing Board’s early years, from 1968 to 1987, that flat prices were fixed to recover costs.