Yushui Village in Lijiang, Yunnan, with snow mountain backdrop and cascading waterfalls.
12/07/2008
Fixing the affordability myth
HDB flats are affordable! You must believe that this is true. I swear that this is true. Yes, it is true under certain conditions. There is enough money in the CPF. If not enough, it can be made enough by increasing the amount available from the CPF. But this option is at its limit and can hardly get higher unless money from the Special Account and Medisave Account can also be used. Another way is to prolong the payment, from 20 years to 30 years to 50 years. And all these assume that the flat buyer is forever employed in all his 30 or 50 years of living.
What Singaporeans should ask for is for a reduction in the amount of CPF that can be used for purchase of HDB flats. And the duration for repayment should also be shortened. This will allowed more money to be saved for retirement and no need for any CPF Life or fearing that there is not enough money left in the CPF after paying for an affordable HDB flat.
Ok, some of you must have stood up and wanting to pounce on me for suggesting reduction of CPF and the duration for repayment. Let me explain. If the people has only $X in the CPF, or the repayment is shortened to say 10 or 15 years, his affordability must come down if not all of $X can be used. He can only afford to buy a flat that cost less than $X.
Now you get what I mean? The policy of pricing HDB flat is based on affordability and not on the cost of building the flat. So if the buyer can afford to pay less, the price of HDB flats must come down accordingly. The problem today is that a buyer can use nearly all his CPF and can stretch to 30 or maybe 50 years. This will increase his affordability to buy more expensive flats. So HDB can price its flats accordingly and proclaim that HDB flats are affordable.
Today's affordable is all your money in the CPF for 30 or 50 years. This is translated to mean you will not have much of a saving until you have paid off the affordable flat.
Got it?
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10 comments:
I have always thought that using half my life just to pay for a roof over my head is an absolute joke. When the time comes for this need, I will rather search for the possibilities outside Singapore...
hi jetreroy, welcome to the blog.
this is already a reality. you spend 25 yrs to get an education and 25 yrs to pay for a roof over your head. all these have been factored in as part of the policy of affordability. in fact it is more than half of your life gone.
and this is good. now maybe if they make you live till 100 yrs, it may still be half of your life. then the other half will be saving to make sure you can pay your medical bill to 100.
i think something has gone wrong in defining what is a good life or what is living. what the heck are we living for? to pay and pay and to produce some offspring to continue the paying?
is that what these mechanical supertalents think is what is good for the people?
PROTEST!
Francis Chua, Singapore
Mr Lee Kuan Yew is a Singapore citizen just like any other Singapore citizen. What rights does he have to repeatedly interfering into the lives of other Singapore citizens. My privacy rights are constantly violated in Singapore. There is not a single day, that I am not distracted by the uncritical Singapore media, the exploitative Government of Singapore policies and the annoying habits displayed by the thoughtless persons. Not only there is no attempt made to level up poor Singapore citizens, there is every attempt made to further exploit poor Singapore citizens by rich businesspersons and the government in Singapore through their business and taxes. Unmarried Singapore citizens are repeatedly targetted and discriminated by the unjust government policies and some Singaporeans, making a decent housing out-of-reach to them. Singapore citizens who want to live their lives without interference are constantly harressed by the interfering mass media, and the other dumb PAP politicians. Singapore is full of propaganda, like communist states.
Francis Chua, Singapore
Easy to fix lah. Just wait for, or better still call an election, and promise a $100k subsidy to purchase HDB.
Then get voted in, and give away the "welfare" subsidy to the people who can't afford.
Problem solved. Govt become a greater necessity in people's lives, always coming to the rescue.
And redbean smiles...becuase the "poor" get helped, and he didn't have to shell out one dime of his own money :)
actually we are lucky that the hdb flats are rolled out with 99 years leases. given our life span, it could or should have been less. shh
this paying a whole life for a hdb flat is only applicable to the losers. if your parents are rich and clever, they will have bought a few private properties for each child and they need not pay a single cent for a life of luxury.
only losers have to pay, and pay real hard for it.
Actually redbean, the people you call "losers" actually are "winners" because they have a consistent partner: the govt.
All you have to do to get the gov to subsidise your entire life from cradle to grave is to vote for them — especially when they promise lots of "goodies" during the election campaigns.
Then your parents won't have to buy you a house or even be bothered to save money for your education or worry about hospital bills when you get sick. The govt will provide. Your parents can then use their money to enjoy themselves... since now the govt is responsible for your upkeep.
In fact, one can discard one's parents altogether for they were only good for one thing: conception.
When the govt figures out how to produce babies in a govt laboratory, parenthood will no longer be required. The govt will decide how many babies to produce every year, and what genetic traits they should have to eventually evolve into obedient and compliant citizens who'll serve the country and its leaders without complaint or question. No longer will there be pesky families and parents who'd dare to take on the responsibility of ensuring that their kids grow up with independent minds and self-reliant spirits. To have a cohesive nation-state, the govt in-charge has to remove all traces of individualism, because if people were "individual" it is impossible to control their minds, bodies and spirits.
When the govt designs society from the ground up, everybody can be provided for, because everything is PLANNED. Everyone will be more or less the same and they can be "warehoused" in state-supplied containers now known as HDB flats.
By containing the population in this way, the leaders can keep a constant eye on them and control as well as design the lives and the destiny of the whole country.
wow, that sounds like utopia
ya, we are all winners. the govt provided us with a hdb flat and i have to pay for it for half of my lifetime. and my health is taken care off by the govt, i have to pay for it in advance, in the medisave, all $30k of it. and the govt is ensuring that i live till 85 or more, and i am paying for it with my cpf and cpf life.
why am i paying for it when the govt is supposed to be providing all these?
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