AS A Singaporean, I felt uneasy when I read your article ‘Soaring rents pushing PRs to buy flats’ (July 5).
Aren’t Housing Board (HDB) flats supposed to be an affordable form of housing for citizens? As indicated in your article, the burgeoning population of permanent residents and their purchasing power is one of the factors driving HDB resale prices.
And it has indirectly resulted in the increase in prices of new flats since HDB priced them on market valuation.
Most of these permanent residents are willing and able to fork out huge cash-over-valuation (COV) sums that sellers are asking these days while most Singaporeans are being priced out of the market.
My Singaporean neighbour has sold his flat to a permanent resident couple at a COV of $40,000.
Additionally, with more and more Chinese and Indian nationals attaining permanent residency, how would they affect the HDB ethnic quota?
Would that mean that there will be less flats available for Chinese and Indian citizens?
A separate quota for permanent residents may be necessary to ensure that public housing remains affordable and available to most Singaporeans.
HDB policy makers should share their thoughts with the public.
Chua Teck Kee
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