Housing Board flats that sold for at least $1 million made up 0.3 per cent of total resale transactions this year, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee yesterday.
There have been 38 such million-dollar flats sold as at August, out of 14,400 resale transactions. Mr Lee gave the figure in response to Mr Gan Thiam Poh (Ang Mo Kio GRC), who had asked how the Government plans to assuage public anxiety and pent-up demand in relation to such million-dollar flats.
Earlier this month, flash estimates from real estate portal SRX showed that eight HDB resale flats were sold for at least $1 million last month. Of the eight units, the highest transacted price was $1.26 million for a five-room flat at The Pinnacle @ Duxton in Tanjong Pagar.
Sixty-four HDB flats were sold for more than $1 million last year, while 71 of such flats were sold in 2018.
On the pricing of Build-To-Order (BTO) flats, Mr Lee said prices remain at around five times the median annual household income, compared with that of other major cities in the world where the ratio can be nearly 10 or 20 times.
When the HDB prices new flats, it first establishes the flat's market value by considering factors such as its attributes, the prices of comparable resale flats nearby and prevailing market conditions, he said.
"A generous subsidy is then applied, so that new flats are priced at a significant discount to the market. The pricing approach is the same for BTO flats in mature and non-mature estates," he added.
He noted that first-time flat buyers can also tap the Enhanced Central Provident Fund Housing Grant of up to $80,000. The majority of first-timer families are able to buy BTO flats in non-mature estates and service their mortgage instalments using their CPF, paying zero or minimal cash, he added.
He said the Government will continue to closely monitor the affordability of BTO and resale flats.
Separately, Second Minister for National Development Indranee Rajah told the House that about 80 per cent of the 1,000 two-room flexi flats launched in the first half of this year have been booked.
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38
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Number of million-dollar HDB flats sold this year as at August, out of 14,400 resale transactions.
Of these, more than 90 per cent were booked by seniors and singles, she said in response to Mr Gan.
HDB launched another 1,800 two-room flexi flats in the August BTO sales exercise.
She added that on average, singles bought about 6,000 resale flats out of the 22,000 sold each year over the past five years under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme or the Joint Singles Scheme. Of these, about 46 per cent were three-room or smaller flats, 39 per cent were four-room flats, and 15 per cent were five-room or bigger flats.
