Nearly 200,000 new homes by 2016: Khaw

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Meanwhile, assurances are coming in fast too. But when you have a population target of 7 million by 2030, perhaps the supply is still woefully insufficient?

The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Jan 19, 2013
Nearly 200,000 new homes by 2016: Khaw


ALMOST 200,000 new homes are expected to hit the market by 2016, Mr Khaw Boon Wan said yesterday, as he gave the assurance that there are enough homes for all.

In a blog post, the National Development Minister also said that the slew of measures announced last week to cool the property market are intended to protect first-time buyers.

They are largely exempted from the measures, which include higher stamp duties and down payments, as well as tighter loan-to-value limits.

Mr Khaw said the current pent-up demand and market imbalance is caused by under-building in the past and the high investment demand today. "But we have been ramping up supply, and in two, three and four years' time, supply will have caught up with pent-up demand."

In the next three to four years, there will be an additional 80,000 private properties, 10,000 executive condominiums and 110,000 HDB flats - equivalent to building four new Ang Mo Kio towns.

Mr Khaw also sought the understanding of investors hit by the new rules and hoped they would accept that the package would also be good for them "in due course".

"In any case, many of the new measures are counter-cyclical in nature, to be lifted when the market regains its balance," he said.

SLP International research head Nicholas Mak said that while the projected near-200,000 homes is big, "the reality is that many first-timers are still priced out of the market today, although that may change in the next few months if the new measures are effective".

First-time buyers like advertising executive Jezreel Ow, 25, are hoping for that outcome. "Everything except my career is in limbo and on hold, until I can afford my own place."

DARYL CHIN
My Value Investing Blog: http://sgmusicwhiz.blogspot.com/
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