Will focus on helping singles?
According to the Straits Times news report “HDB to focus on helping families live close together” (Dec 30) – “The HDB’s overall pace of construction will slow next year, but not when it comes to building units for these two groups.”If policies can be tweaked to facilitate their needs being met, I will do so,” he added.” - HDB is famous for saying one thing and doing something else.
But this one tops it off!
Reduce supply because demand met
First we say that the supply of flats has been reduced because demand has been met. Then, we say that the focus will be on singles.
Let’s look at the numbers to see whether this makes sense or not.
The numbers tell a different story
According to a Channel NewsAsia television news report on 31 July 2013 when the singles’ 2-room BTO scheme started – the first BTO launch for singles was over-subscibed by 27 times.
After four BTO launches this year – the over-subscription rate was still as high as 24.6 times in September.
Will offer 5,000 2-room flats to help singles in 2014
According to the HDB’s reply in REACH on 8 August 2013 in response to widespread unhappiness on the over-subscription rates – it said that it would offer 5,000 2-room flats in 2014 to help singles.
In the September BTO – only 1,190 out of 14,452 flats or 8 per cent were 2-room flats.
Since the singles application rate is calculated by dividing by 30 per cent the total number of flats – does it mean that only 30 per cent of 2-room flats are available for singles?
So, did the HDB offer 5,000 2-room flats for singles in 2014, as seemingly implied in their reponse of 8 August 2013?
Please just be transparent
Actually the answer is simple. All that the HDB needs to do is to be transparent and tell us how many singles have gotten flats and how many in total are still in the queue?
Win battles lose war
TRS Contributor