According to Uncle Leong’s article, he discovered something interesting with regard to the recent PM Lee’s announcement of special grant to help middle-income Singaporeans to buy their HDB flats, at NDR 2013 (‘NDR Speech: ‘Significant Shift’ or more ‘Pay And Pay’?‘).
In Mar this year, HDB launched new BTO units at Sengkang, called Compassvale Cape [Link].
The prices of 4-room HDB flat at this launch range from $284,000 – $361,000 with a typical pricing of $320,000.
Four months later in Jul, which is just last month, 1 month from PM Lee’s National Day Rally, HDB launched another new BTO project at Sengkang, called Fernvale Riverwalk [Link] at a much reduced price.
The prices of 4-room HDB flat at this launch now range from $251,000 – $324,000 with a typical pricing of $285,000. This typical pricing was exactly the one used in PM Lee’s example in his NDR speech (‘PM’s housing examples at NDR show HDB flats not affordable‘).
Taking the typical pricings as benchmarks (i.e, $320,000 for a 4-room flat at Compassvale Cape vs $285,000 for a similar one at Fernvale Riverwalk), how is it that within a time frame of 4 months, prices of BTO flats in the same area can drop 11%?
If we were to take a typical price of $210,000 for a 3-room flat at Compassvale Cape vs $170,000 for a similar one at Fernvale Riverwalk, the drop in pricing would be even more significant – at 19% (The $170,000 pricing for a 3-room flat at Fernvale Riverwalk was also exactly the one used by PM Lee in his NDR speech)!
Was the sudden reduction in price over a 4 month period tied to NDR held in this month so that PM Lee could make a good illustration? Or perhaps it was only a coincidence?
Uncle Leong asked, “Didn’t somebody say that BTO prices have stabilised since taking over the job?”
Link
Also read:
What does PM mean when he says HDB flat prices have been ‘delinked’? - TR Emeritus
