I find it strange that Minister has to remind developer of policy when EC falls under public housing. Just stop the developer from selling at that kind of prices. If HDB still do not take a firm stand on public housing prices and continue to let market dynamics determine the prices, then scrap the term "public housing" and "HDB flats" (BTO, EC and whatever abbreviations) . There are no affordable public housing for the masses these days.
You have made a very good, intelligent assessment of the situation. Unfortunately, it's also a very innocent one. Not your fault. Consider the following and I hope it can answer your questions. (Read more online blogs and news. What I am about to say is a compilation of what I've read and also some of my own opinions.)
I think this government is shrewd. It's obvious. And there's no hiding. It's a personal opinion which has built up from the way I see things unfold in the last few years.
The same thing happened to the very expensive DBSS flats. I'm not sure if you recall many people expressing their displeasure at how expensive these HDB flats are.
Mah Bow Tan, the then minister for National Development, said calmly there are couples who like such condo-like flats without the facilities. Till today, I can't figure out if he told the truth or just tried to conveniently cook up a poor excuse. Did he do any formal research or survey to come to that conclusion? If he did, it was not presented anyway.
People here then continued to make noise about how expensive DBSS flats are. The government didn't care. I think it was Khaw Boon Wan then who came out to say, "Look, if it's too expensive you can walk away. No one is forcing you to buy."
Fast forward. The developers saw it was good to chop more people here. The last straw was when I think the Tampines DBSS was priced almost at $900k!!! This time round, those take-it-easy ministers knew they couldn't leave the situation resting or come out with more lame excuses and they immediately stopped DBSS for good.
When people complained why DBSS flats are so expensive, Khaw gave the apologetic look and said "But the government can't do anything! It's part of the contract that states the developer can choose to price the flats as they desire."
FANTASTIC! You sell the land to the private guys, you are the controlling body GAHMEN who is like God here, and you are telling us you cannot control the prices??? Wasn't it you who write the contract in the first place?
It's not as if you are selling the land for private property development. For goodness sake, it's HDB flats which many have been queuing for ages to buy unsuccessfully!
So now with the ECs, I think the same thing is being done. This Khaw Boon Wan comes out, like so concerned, telling developers, Hey hey hey... Please remember what EC is about. To me, this is just "wayang" to show to the public he is trying to do something but actually, it's nothing.
I think it's a big dumb joke. The land now belongs to the private guys. Making profits is their goal. You think they would care, Oh, let's make less profits. Let's heed Khaw boon Wan's call to think about the purpose of EC. Bull... They will still carry on with their master plans. And at the end of it, there will still be (rich) people buying the ECs. After all, I've already heard a few real cases where China and other foreign PRs actually used cold hard cash to buy resale HDB flats costing $600,000!!! Who or which common Singaporean has such money here?
Unfortunately, the end result is that property prices keep on rising. It benefits the rich. If condos increase from $1 mil to $2 mil within a year, what do the rich care? It's probably just one year of their salaries. But if the government directly or indirectly causes HDB flats to jump in prices so rapidly, it's not a joke. As we have already seen, many low to middle income earners have been affected. And all they can tell us is, It's affordable LAH! You can take 30 years loan MAH! *DUHHHH*
When you question the government, Eh, how come HDB flats so expensive? Can't the government control it? They simply shrug their shoulders and say, "We can't. We have NO part in it. It's the market that controls the prices."
BRAVO!!! Look at the above paragraphs again and can you truly say the government did not cause the property prices to shoot up so rapidly in recent years? Don't even get me started on how they did a poor job in controlling the number of foreigners coming in here and easily get their citizenships! If many of these foreigners don't live in HDB flats and also cause the demand to shoot up while supply is stagnant, then where is the source of it?
