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May 30, 2011
Khaw: Tens of thousands of rental flats needed
By Grace Chua
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20110529/ST_IMAGES_GRKHAW30.jpg
SINGAPORE needs to build 'tens of thousands' of subsidised rental flats to meet the demand for them - the sooner, the better, said new National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday.
'For rental flats, we are studying, but all I know is we need to build more... How fast we can meet the supply - that depends on industry capacity, which I need to study,' he said on the sidelines of a youth forum.
He cited neither a timeframe nor figures, but said it would take 'several years' to meet the shortfall.
The minister's remarks come hot on the heels of an announcement on Friday that the Housing Board will build 25,000 new flats this year so young couples can own their own homes, and that this pace of building may continue into next year.
He noted that first-time buyers are one group with urgent housing needs, another being single mothers or divorcees who need subsidised rental flats.
Tenants pay between $26 and $275 a month for these flats, depending on flat type. There are about 45,000 such public rental flats here.
It was announced in Parliament in January that the Government was planning to build 5,000 more rental flats by next year, while keeping the proportion of rental flats at between 5 per cent and 7 per cent of the total number of HDB flats, so as to encourage home ownership.
During the Budget debate two months later, then National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan further announced that the average waiting time for public rental flats would be shortened to eight months this year, down from 21 months in 2008.
These were aimed at addressing unhappiness on the ground over the long wait for rental flats.
Private operators such as EM Services, allowed to rent out some HDB flats slated for redevelopment at market rates, also raised eyebrows, with some observers saying such flats should be rented to the needy as a matter of priority.
Ministry of National Development figures indicate that there were 2,300 rental flat applications each in 2009 and last year, down from 3,700 in 2008. Families made up 83 per cent of these applicants last year, and singles, the remaining 17 per cent under the Joint Singles Scheme.
Some 44 per cent of applicant households earned below $800 each a month, while the rest earned between $801 and $1,500 a month.
Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and for the Environment, welcomed Mr Khaw's comments.
'I'm glad to hear that he is going to ramp up the numbers,' she said.
She said 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the requests for help that she gets at her Meet-the-People sessions are from those who need public rental flats, and that these include divorcees, those deserted by their children, and those whose flats are to be repossessed.
Madam Rokiah Sulaiman, a 45-year-old mother of two whose husband is in prison, also welcomed the possibility of getting a rental flat sooner.
She does not work because of health problems and has just moved with her teenage son into her mother's one-room Chinatown rental flat, which is also home to her sister.
This means Madam Rokiah is, for the moment, living apart from her other child, a six-year-old daughter who attends school in Woodlands and hence stays with an aunt.
Madam Rokiah hopes to get a rental flat in Marsiling, nearer to her daughter's school. She said: 'I want to live with my kids, but the HDB said a lot of people are asking for rental flats, so I have to wait.'
May 30, 2011
Khaw: Tens of thousands of rental flats needed
By Grace Chua
http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20110529/ST_IMAGES_GRKHAW30.jpg
SINGAPORE needs to build 'tens of thousands' of subsidised rental flats to meet the demand for them - the sooner, the better, said new National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan yesterday.
'For rental flats, we are studying, but all I know is we need to build more... How fast we can meet the supply - that depends on industry capacity, which I need to study,' he said on the sidelines of a youth forum.
He cited neither a timeframe nor figures, but said it would take 'several years' to meet the shortfall.
The minister's remarks come hot on the heels of an announcement on Friday that the Housing Board will build 25,000 new flats this year so young couples can own their own homes, and that this pace of building may continue into next year.
He noted that first-time buyers are one group with urgent housing needs, another being single mothers or divorcees who need subsidised rental flats.
Tenants pay between $26 and $275 a month for these flats, depending on flat type. There are about 45,000 such public rental flats here.
It was announced in Parliament in January that the Government was planning to build 5,000 more rental flats by next year, while keeping the proportion of rental flats at between 5 per cent and 7 per cent of the total number of HDB flats, so as to encourage home ownership.
During the Budget debate two months later, then National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan further announced that the average waiting time for public rental flats would be shortened to eight months this year, down from 21 months in 2008.
These were aimed at addressing unhappiness on the ground over the long wait for rental flats.
Private operators such as EM Services, allowed to rent out some HDB flats slated for redevelopment at market rates, also raised eyebrows, with some observers saying such flats should be rented to the needy as a matter of priority.
Ministry of National Development figures indicate that there were 2,300 rental flat applications each in 2009 and last year, down from 3,700 in 2008. Families made up 83 per cent of these applicants last year, and singles, the remaining 17 per cent under the Joint Singles Scheme.
Some 44 per cent of applicant households earned below $800 each a month, while the rest earned between $801 and $1,500 a month.
Nee Soon GRC Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah, the deputy chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and for the Environment, welcomed Mr Khaw's comments.
'I'm glad to hear that he is going to ramp up the numbers,' she said.
She said 10 per cent to 20 per cent of the requests for help that she gets at her Meet-the-People sessions are from those who need public rental flats, and that these include divorcees, those deserted by their children, and those whose flats are to be repossessed.
Madam Rokiah Sulaiman, a 45-year-old mother of two whose husband is in prison, also welcomed the possibility of getting a rental flat sooner.
She does not work because of health problems and has just moved with her teenage son into her mother's one-room Chinatown rental flat, which is also home to her sister.
This means Madam Rokiah is, for the moment, living apart from her other child, a six-year-old daughter who attends school in Woodlands and hence stays with an aunt.
Madam Rokiah hopes to get a rental flat in Marsiling, nearer to her daughter's school. She said: 'I want to live with my kids, but the HDB said a lot of people are asking for rental flats, so I have to wait.'
