Trapper's Swamp

National Development Minister, Mah Bow Tan has reiterated the wish of the government to keep flat prices high in an interview with Channel News Asia.

Mr Mah revealed that HDB will continue to built the majority of the flats in non-mature estate and to ensure that prices continue to stay up.

“We make sure we don’t overbuild because once you overbuild, you’ll make flat prices in future go down, and that’s not what we want”, he said.

Mr Mah also repeated the mantra that the cash-over-valuation (COV) component that makes resale flat prices even higher than they should be is here to stay.

He also declined to banning COVs as it will not be in the interest of homeowners:

“When people talk about controlling COV … they’re talking about dampening prices, they’re saying let’s ban COVs…..If we control resale flat prices, we’re actually moving away from the free market, which fundamentally would not be in the interest of homeowners.”

If there should be any doubt that HDB is no longer oriented towards providing an affordable roof over the head of Singaporeans, let it be dismissed now. In a country where 90% of the popualation is dependent on public housing, the primary goal of HDB should be provding affordable public housing for Singaporeans, and pegging public housing prices to that of private housing is the opposite of that goal.

Putting the blame on the free market, and trumpeting the value of HDB flats as growing assets, shows an abject failure in supplying a basic need for Singaporeans, and not understanding that housing is a need that must be satisfied instead of an asset to be cashed in.