PURCHASE OF HDB FLATS (Scheme for applicants with varying income eligibility levels)

Mr Leong Horn Kee asked the Acting Minister for National Development whether he will consider implementing a scheme with varying income eligibility levels for applicants who wish to purchase Housing and Development Board flats, so that applicants with higher income ceilings can be eligible to purchase the non-subsidised HDB flats such as the 5-room and executive flats, and applicants with lower income ceilings can be eligible to purchase 3-room and 4-room flats which are subsidised.

The Acting Minister for National Development (Mr Lim Hng Kiang): Mr Speaker, Sir, let me first clarify that the HDB 5-room and Executive flats are subsidised. They are priced lower than market price. Most of them are, in fact, priced below total development cost.

HDB has varying income eligibility levels for applicants who apply for different types of HDB flats. Under the Buy-Back of 3-Room Flats scheme, through which HDB buys back 3-room flats from the open market for subsidised resale to the lower-income group, only first-time applicants with household incomes not exceeding $1,000 are eligible for such flats.

To go further than this, and set varying income ceilings for different flat-types, as the hon. Member has proposed, would impair the current flexibility of the allocation system. This would deprive applicants for new flats of the choice they now have to select a flat that best meets their needs and affordability, within the overall income ceilings of $7,000 for a nuclear family and $11,000 for an extended family.

Mr Leong Horn Kee (Thomson GRC): Sir, may I ask the Minister whether he is aware that, because of rising property prices, there is now an increasing pool of young professionals in the so-called "sandwich" class who cannot afford to buy private housing and, at the same time, are not allowed to buy HDB flats? Would the Minister not consider that it is fair to review the income ceiling levels so that those with higher incomes can be allowed to purchase the more expensive flats, like the Executive and 5-room flats, and those with lower incomes can be allowed to buy the smaller flats which are highly subsidised?

Mr Lim Hng Kiang: Mr Speaker, Sir, under the 1993 labour survey, 92% of Singapore households qualified under the existing rules. The income ceilings were last reviewed on 1st December 1992. We will review it again on 1st December 1994. 1.30 pm

Mr Speaker: Order. End of Question time.

[Pursuant to Standing Order No. 21(3), Questions Nos. 13-16 have been postponed to the sitting of Parliament on 1st November, 1994.]