May 3, 2011
Plans to 'revisit' HDB income ceiling
By Teo Wan Gek
COUPLES who are about to bust the $8,000 monthly income ceiling to qualify for new Housing Board (HDB) flats may be in for some relief, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hinted yesterday.
With incomes rising amid a tight labour market, Mr Lee said he expected wages to go up this year. The Government would 'revisit' the cap, which was set at $8,000 in 1994.
'The income ceiling is something which we are studying. We will revisit it again after the effects of the current round of measures become clearer.'
The Government had introduced several rounds of cooling measures to dampen speculative demand for property, the latest in January.
PM Lee did not promise that the cap would go up, but his comments made it clear he was sympathetic to the plight of couples whose incomes went up just above the ceiling. These couples have complained they are barred from buying new HDB flats but cannot afford private property.
Mr Lee noted that some couples are marrying later, with some in their mid-30s who might be reaching the top of the income cap. Some were within the income ceiling while applying for a new build-to-order (BTO) flat, but a promotion or pay rise while waiting for the flat to be ready could tip them over.
'So when they apply for BTO flats and they don't get them, and a promotion or an increment may be on the way... what should normally be good news for celebration becomes a cause for anxiety because they may be promoted out of range (of the income cap),' he told reporters at a media conference.
The affordability of HDB flats has emerged as a top issue in this election. The opposition has also said that new HDB flat prices are rising faster than median incomes.
Young couples who are eligible to buy new flats have also complained of long waits for their homes under the BTO scheme, which lets couples book their flats before they are built.
On the long wait for flats, Mr Lee said that this year, the HDB is building a record number of 22,000 new flats under the BTO scheme.
On high prices, he acknowledged that many first-time buyers could not afford private property and did not have enough savings to pay the cash component for a HDB resale flat. Some relied on parents to help out. This was why the Government would look at the income ceiling again.
Last August, the Government raised the income cap for HDB's Design, Build and Sell Scheme - for the top tier of HDB flats - from $8,000 to $10,000.
'We considered whether to do it for the other HDB flats such as the BTO but we haven't done it yet because the property market was very hot and we didn't want to add more pressure on the BTO flat queue or, for that matter, on the resale flat queue,' he said, explaining that a change in the income ceiling would also affect the eligibility for other HDB loans.
http://www.straitstimes.com/PrimeNew...ry_663986.html
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Originally Posted by ysyap
You echoed the voices of many Singaporeans....
. No different from someone who said our healthcare is actually affordable!!! 
