HDB should review waiting time for ex-owners of private property

Source : Straits Times – 10 Jul 2009

I SUPPORT Mr Anthony Koh’s call yesterday (’Scrap 2-year wait to buy flat to aid retirees’), for the HDB to re-examine the outdated policy of insisting that private property owners wait so long after they dispose of their private property befor applying for a new flat. This is so even if they have never bought an HDB flat before.

The HDB said the rationale behind this policy is it would be unfair for private property owners to enjoy the government subsidy. However, it cannot convincingly explain the unfairness when it allows a subsidised flat owner to buy a private property after he has owned his subsidised flat for five years.

The unfairness is acute, particularly when the private property owner inherited the private property from his parents.

Patrick Sio