Watch Mr Leong Sze Hian's speech in 2 parts here:
http://singaporeenquirer.sg/?p=370
Excerpts from Mr Leong Sze Hian’s speech:
“Last month in Parliament, a question was asked ‘how many HDB flat holders cannot pay their housing loan ?’. The answer - 33,000, 8% of HDB concessionary loans are in arrears for more than 3 months.”
“At the height of the subprime crisis in U.S., according to a local newspaper, the deliquency rate over 90 days was only 5% and here in Singapore, for HDB loans, we have 8%. So is the subprime problem more serious here in Singapore than over in the U.S. ?”
“The HDB used to publish every year a statistic called ‘Financial assistance to HDB flat dwellers’. For this year and last year in the annual report, this statistic has disappeared !”
“Every time a question is asked in Parliament - “Are HDB flats still affordable ?”. The answer is always ‘yes’. Why ? Because the average Singaporean household pay not more than 25% of their annual income for the HDB flat, therefore it is affordable. This to me is like telling you the obvious. If you cannot afford the HDB flat, will you buy it or not ?”
http://singaporeenquirer.sg/?p=370
Excerpts from Mr Leong Sze Hian’s speech:
“Last month in Parliament, a question was asked ‘how many HDB flat holders cannot pay their housing loan ?’. The answer - 33,000, 8% of HDB concessionary loans are in arrears for more than 3 months.”
“At the height of the subprime crisis in U.S., according to a local newspaper, the deliquency rate over 90 days was only 5% and here in Singapore, for HDB loans, we have 8%. So is the subprime problem more serious here in Singapore than over in the U.S. ?”
“The HDB used to publish every year a statistic called ‘Financial assistance to HDB flat dwellers’. For this year and last year in the annual report, this statistic has disappeared !”
“Every time a question is asked in Parliament - “Are HDB flats still affordable ?”. The answer is always ‘yes’. Why ? Because the average Singaporean household pay not more than 25% of their annual income for the HDB flat, therefore it is affordable. This to me is like telling you the obvious. If you cannot afford the HDB flat, will you buy it or not ?”