26-04-2011, 03:10 PM
(26-04-2011, 01:34 PM)karlmarx Wrote: indeed, it should be the government's aim to act on behalf of all citizen, presumably for the benefit of all of them. if the land were to be sold to private buyers, i will agree that it should not be sold cheaper than its market value. but since we're talking about land for public consumption -- and everybody is able to participate because it is a designated public good -- why can't the land be priced lower for everyone who is a buyer of public housing? nobody will be shortchanged in the process.
a fixed discount to the market price of land for public housing can be used so that the people who buy flats in sengkang will not be shortchanged if he didn't manage to buy one at duxton.
there is also the question of whether valuation policy is sensible. the current valuation policy allows valuation and prices to chase each other endlessly, exposing public housing land prices to private market forces, and vice versa. if this isn't the case and they didn't change the policy during the 80s, we wouldn't have this problem of 'affordable housing' today.
The resale HDB market is making the situation tricky. It is rather easy for gov to lower the valuation of the land to achieve a lower HDB selling price but it will, at the same time, cause the resale flats to drop in value.
With over 80% of the population staying in HDB, significant number of voters were not be very happy to see their properties going into negative equity.
It is trued that the policy of using "market subsidy" has caused the current vicious cycle of rising resale price and new unit price. But, is it a viable path to change the policy now?
The solution to the current situation must take into account of the resale units and new units. Most of the current opposition policies are targeting at reducing the price of the new units but they must realise that many voters are current owners of HDB flats. I do not think any HDB owner will be very happy to see their flats being devaluated due to a need to provide affordable housing.