Monday, June 6, 2011

How much should a new 4-room HDB flat be selling at now?

If you have read my book, I have mentioned that the selling price of a new 4-room HDB flat was sold at $27,000 thirty years ago. If we were to use the inflation rate of 5% per annum for the past 30 years, a new 4-room HDB should be priced at around $116,700.

Recently, when I was having a casual conversation with a taxi driver regarding the overpriced new HDB flats. He shared that a main contractor (his passenger) confirmed that the cost of building a HDB unit is close to $100,000. Adding in the administrative costs to sell the flat, I feel that my calculation of the above selling price is reasonable.

HDB should relook at their mission. Their mission is to provide affordable housing for young and old Singaporeans. Why is a 4-room HDB flat selling close to $250,000? That is double the price it should be selling at. How many young couples can really afford this kind of price?

A suggestion is to stop building new flats in the mature estate. If the couple wants to stay close to their parents, either buy from the resale market (pay a higher price) or their parents sell their current place and the two families buy two new flats (at a lower price) in the new estates like seng kang or punggol. The parents need not wait for 30 months to buy the new flats. This is just a suggestion. It is still up to HDB to change their policies.

Feel free to comment on this post.

Cheers.

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