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SINGAPORE: Fang (not her real name), 30, used to be able to put up with living at her in-laws’ place, where she and her husband have been staying since 2019 while waiting for her Build-To-Order (BTO) flat in Punggol which was supposed to be ready by this year. Not anymore.
Having to work from home like many others after COVID-19 struck last year, the manager saw her productivity plummet as she had to talk to her clients and conduct video-conferencing calls from the kitchen of the four-room Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat.
And no matter how hard Ms Fang tried to be extra mindful of the needs of her in-laws, who were themselves working via teleconferencing, she noticed tension between her and the elders building up over the months.
Soon, she found herself shuttling between living at her in-laws’ place in Punggol and her parents’ Farrer Park three-room flat to preserve everyone’s sanity — only to have the sight of the seven to eight boxes cluttering her room serve as a reminder of an unfulfilled dream.
They contained items such as kitchenware and tupperware which she had bought pre-pandemic, thinking that her marital flat could be ready earlier than expected. After all, it is not uncommon to hear of homeowners collecting their key up to a year ahead of schedule.
But it was not to be. She is now expecting her flat to be delayed by a year.
Ms Fang’s split-living arrangement inevitably means that she and her 30-year-old husband will have to spend some nights alone, as he prefers to stay at his parents’ home since it is nearer to his workplace.
“I believe our plans to have children would have to be pushed back,” she lamented.
The newly-weds are not the only ones in Singapore whose plans have been derailed due to a pandemic-induced delay in getting keys to their dream flats.
More than 40,000 households waiting for their BTO flats are now in the same boat, as the construction sector — already struggling to clear a huge backlog after restrictions to ease the virus’ spread eased — continues to grapple with global supply chain disruptions and manpower shortages.
In pre-pandemic days, prospective homeowners were waiting for about three to four years following a new launch for a flat under the BTO scheme — often regarded as the Government’s primary lever to provide affordable homes to those wishing to start a family.
Now, they will have to add between six and nine months, or even a year in some cases, to the waiting game.
The delays couldn’t have come at a worse time for young couples eager to set up their very first marital home.
The buoyant housing market — which seems to care little for the economic havoc caused by COVID-19 — means that other options, such as buying a resale HDB flat, are slipping from their reach.
HDB resale prices had shot up by 8.1 per cent following four consecutive quarters of increases in the past year, and are currently just 4.8 per cent below the last peak in 2013.
In the private market, prices are at a historic high, making apartments or houses in the sector even more inaccessible to many young couples. Prices jumped 3.3 per cent in the first three months of the year, marking the steepest quarterly increase since the second quarter of 2018.
Even the rental market cannot provide much reprieve, as couples find it increasingly expensive to rent flats.
Based on March’s flash data from real estate portal SRX, condo rents are 2.4 per cent higher than in March last year after climbing three months in a row, while HDB rents are 3.4 per cent higher over the same period, having risen for nine consecutive months.
This perfect storm in the housing market, said analysts, is driven by BTO construction delays, the low interest rate environment which has persisted amid the global economic slowdown; and rising demand from foreign investors, backed by the prospects of further price growth and an improving leasing environment.
As these factors are likely to persist for some time, some analysts are predicting that private residential prices will chalk up 4 to 10 per cent gains in the full year, while HDB resale prices are expected to rise by 5 to 9 per cent.
The situation is not unique to Singapore, with countries such as Australia and the United States also experiencing a housing boom, due to a combination of various factors including those related to the pandemic.
HITS CLOSE TO HOME
With the “perfect storm” unlikely to blow over anytime soon, some couples who are planning to get married or starting a family have had to go back to the drawing board.
Due to the delay in BTO delivery dates, some said that they had to delay their wedding plans to around the time when their flats would be ready.
Others have decided to delay parenthood, while some like 30-year-old Abdul Aliff have no choice but to welcome a new member of the family before their “nest” is ready.
The freelance technician, whose wife is expecting their first child, is currently renting a one-bedroom apartment in Punggol for S$600 from his elder brother.
He had initially wanted to have a child only after he and his 28-year-old wife moved into their BTO flat in Sengkang — which might still have been possible if not for the construction delays — but “God has better plans”, he quipped.
Still, the one-room flat is too small for a family of three. They could only buy travel cots or foldable cribs as there isn’t enough space for a proper crib. It would also be easier to move when they get the keys to their own place by the second quarter of 2023, he said.
“Everything we’re getting for the baby is either the mini version or something that we can easily pack in a box and shift,” he said.
For those who have opted to continue renting while they wait for their delayed BTO flats, it means having to fork out more than what they had originally budgeted.
Take the case of a 28-year-old civil servant who declined to be named. She and her husband got married in 2019 and decided to rent at a prime location, thinking that it would only take two years at most, with the expectation that their BTO flat would be ready by June this year.
But when it was confirmed that their BTO development at Punggol’s Waterway Sunrise II — which required a change of contractors — would be delayed by a year, they had to break the lease for their Holland Village unit and move into a cheaper rental flat in Punggol to save money.
“If we had continued to rent at the original location and paid a higher rent, it would be much more difficult for us to save up for the HDB in the future. In a sense, we are burning more of our savings,” she said.
Mr Justin Ong, 28, a sales and leasing manager, and Ms Jen Lee, 29, a customer success manager, are also planning to rent from the middle of next year, after realising that their BTO flat in Kallang is going to be delayed for nine months, till May 2023.
Since they would not be able to immediately move into their new home after getting married in December next year, the couple felt they could take the time to learn to live with one another before tying the knot, then continuing with this living arrangement after marriage.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...prices-building-delays-young-couples-14725468
