[You Believe Him?] ‘We will always keep public housing affordable for Singaporeans’: PM Wong

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‘We will always keep public housing affordable for Singaporeans’: PM Wong​

PM Lawrence Wong said HDB will continue to price new flats in relation to income and not the resale market, to make sure public housing remains affordable.ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM

Chin Soo Fang

UPDATED JAN 22, 2025, 06:14 AM

SINGAPORE - Public housing will always be kept affordable for Singaporeans, both now and in the future, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

He gave this assurance during a dialogue on Jan 21 with close to 900 student participants across various education institutions at the University Cultural Centre in NUS.

The Housing Board will continue to price new flats in relation to income and not the resale market, to make sure public housing remains affordable, PM Wong said.

“We are able, through heavy government subsidies, through what we do on the HDB side, to provide assurance to all of you, both now and in the future, that we will always keep public housing affordable for Singaporeans,” he said.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global research organisation, considers home ownership affordable when the ratio of the median home price to median annual household income is below 5.

This means that the flat’s price is within five times of the buyer’s annual household income.

According to a ULI report released in May, the ratio in Singapore for HDB flats is 4.7.

Besides housing affordability, PM Wong fielded questions on topics such as the Singapore Dream, geopolitics and same-sex marriage in a wide-ranging dialogue that lasted about 90 minutes.

It was organised by government feedback unit Reach and Varsity Voices, a student-led university initiative.

He acknowledged the anxiety over housing prices, including over flats that fetch more than $1 million on the resale market.

PM Wong shared that in the 70s, his parents bought an HDB flat for about $30,000.

“You may say, wow, so cheap. Today is so much more expensive, 10 times or more,” he said.

“But remember, at that time, their salaries were nothing like today’s salaries.”

While flat prices have increased, so have Singaporeans’ incomes, he said, adding that today, more than 80 per cent of first-time flat buyers can afford their flat and service their mortgage with their Central Provident Fund, with very little or zero cash.

The Prime Minister noted that resale flat prices are “on the high side”, but also said that the pandemic caused a supply disruption as the construction industry was severely impacted.

The Government has since gone “full steam ahead” to build more flats, and has also been putting out land for private housing, he said. However, the effects on supply will not be immediately felt as these take years to build.

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On high application rates for certain Build-To-Order projects, PM Wong said there will be higher demand for flats in more attractive locations.

“But generally speaking, because we’ve been putting out so many new flats, we have seen the application rates come down.”

This means success rates for getting a new flat are higher now, and many are able to get a flat within two or three tries, he said.

The Government will continue to review the situation, and the supply that it is putting onto the market will eventually have an impact on stabilising the overall property market, he added.

Different pathways to success​

The Singapore Dream is evolving to be more open and less prescribed, PM Wong said.

“It’s one where we want you to choose your own path of success, and there will be different pathways, different aspirations, different goals,” he said.

He spoke of moving away from too much comparison with others, noting that this can lead to people feeling like they are “chasing someone else’s dream”.

“We want an environment where there are many opportunities, where people can eventually find purpose in what they do,” he said.

PM Wong expressed his hope that Singaporeans will look out for one another and help others succeed, even as they realise their own potential.

Singaporeans today enjoy more opportunities and exposure compared to past generations, he said.

This includes those with disabilities, and there will be plans to help them in the upcoming Budget, he said.

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‘We don’t start off assuming we know everything’​

Asked what are common criticisms of the ruling People’s Action Party and the Government, PM Wong said to laughter from the audience: “There are many. I mean, you just need to go online.”

His approach to such criticism is not to start off assuming that the Government knows everything, or that everything is perfect.

“I think we should have a balance – be grateful first of all that in Singapore, we have many things that we can be appreciative of: healthcare, retirement, public housing,” he said.

“But does it mean that we therefore become complacent and assume everything is okay? No, I mean, there are genuine concerns around cost, around affordability.”

PM Wong noted that global inflation, as a result of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, caused much unhappiness around the world. In many countries, the incumbents either lost ground in elections or lost the right to govern altogether.

“There will be criticisms. We listen to the feedback. We hear you: the concerns, the unhappiness, the frustrations. We try to find solutions to tackle them. If there are no easy answers, we explain to you what the situation is to the best of our abilities, and then we find ways to move forward as a country,” he said.

“That must be the way we do things in Singapore, not to tear each other down, but to try and uplift one another, to try to move forward together as one people.”

Let things take natural course​

Asked whether Singapore will recognise same-sex marriage, PM Wong said the nation made a major move recently with the repeal of Section 377A of the Penal Code.

But the Government recognises the consensus of society today, which is that marriage is between man and woman. Because this could come under challenge, it protected the definition of marriage in the Constitution, he said.

“This is where we are today. How will it evolve? I really do not know,” he said. “The Government’s position is to let things take its natural course. People will discuss, people will have opinions and the views may well evolve over a period of time.” The Government’s priority is for these sorts of issues to not divide Singapore society further, he added.

Said PM Wong: “Let us sit down and talk, let us continue to engage one another and let us do this organically.”

• Chin Soo Fang is senior correspondent at The Straits Times, covering topics such as community, politics, social issues, consumer, culture and heritage.