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SINGAPORE – A variety of housing types will be built in upcoming properties in prime locations such as the Great South Walk (GSW) to ensure that all public developments have a good mix of Singaporeans, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee.
These include smaller types of housing, such as two-bedroom apartments for the elderly and rental housing for low-income families, depending on planning parameters and the needs of different types of housing, but are “deliberately injected,” he said. in an interview with Lianhe Zaobao. .
Mr. Lee acknowledged the “lottery effect” of these well-located Housing Board floors, which can result in a “likely windfall” for homeowners who sell these subsidized build-to-order (BTO) floors. the government in the resale market.
There’s the issue of “inclusion and diversity” when these flats are allowed to be resold after the minimum five-year occupancy period, he said.
“If it is going to be sold and traded at high resale prices, then there is a risk that only well-off Singaporeans will be able to buy (flats in) those properties. And then of course the character of the properties will change and it may be a price out of the reach of ordinary Singaporeans, “he said.
“We don’t want to have properties that are gentrified and that only the rich can afford to live (in). We want to have a good mix.”
In order to achieve this, in addition to introducing diverse homes, he pointed out that the price of the flats must remain affordable in the first sale by HDB and also in resales.
“We may need a number of other measures to ensure that if these flats are allowed to be resold, they remain affordable for generations to come,” said Mr. Lee, without specifying the measures.
“People, of course, will pay what they think the market can bear to get these very good flats and very good locations. So some of these measures would have to cover all these fronts,” he added.
He cited GSW as an example of a main site, but noted that the timeline is “pretty advanced.”
“But there may be other sites with very important attributes that could be implemented in the months and years to come,” he said.
Lee said HDB will seek suggestions and comments from the public through participation sessions over the next several months.
“We want to make sure these public discussions take place, get people’s opinions, and then we can come up with a model that we could potentially apply in the short term,” he said.
First announced in 2013, the GSW encompasses 30 km of coastline stretching from the gardens along the Bay East area to Pasir Panjang.
The 2,000 hectare coastal mega development, six times the size of Marina Bay and twice the size of Punggol, was outlined by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his 2019 National Day Rally speech.
Approximately 9,000 public and private housing units will be built on the Keppel Golf Club site as part of the GSW, with future housing available at other sites as well.
Lee said that even as HDB is constantly reviewing and evolving public housing policies to respond to the changing demographics and aspirations of Singaporeans, core values remain.
“We want to keep the character of all of our inclusive and diverse HDB properties and allow Singaporeans, ordinary Singaporeans, to also live in parts of Singapore that will be considered privileged,” he said.
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