During the recent National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong mentioned that the build-to-order (BTO) prices for HDB flats had been delinked from resale prices.
National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan also claimed earlier this year, during the Budget Debate, that he had “broke convention” to delink BTO prices from resale prices since taking over the MND portfolio in 2011, in what was portrayed as bold and unprecedented move.
Since the government-controlled mainstream media often uses Sengkang as a model, we shall examine the BTO prices in Sengkang from 2009 to 2013 and the Resale Price Index provided in HDB’s website (http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10321p.nsf/w/BuyResaleFlatResaleIndex):
How does “delinking” take place when both BTO and resale prices are moving in the same direction?
Although the percentage patterns for both appeared to be different, it is only in that a sharp hike followed by a slower increase in resale prices occurred ahead of similar trend in BTO prices.
The statistics also revealed that when Mr Khaw took over as MND minister, there was no improvement and contrary to what he had claimed.
Was this why PM Lee had to remind Singaporeans whom he thought might have forgotten about this “delinking”?
Because the evidence is simply not there?
The PAP owes the people a better explanation of what “delinking” actually means.
Melvin Tan