Singapore's National Development Minister files motion on keeping housing affordable

SINGAPORE - National Development Minister Desmond Lee has filed a motion that reaffirms the Government's commitment to keep public housing affordable and accessible while protecting the interests of current and future generations of Singaporeans amid concerns over the red hot property market.

In a Facebook post on January 30, Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann said that this motion could sound similar to the one filed by Non-Constituency Members of Parliament Leong Mun Wai and Hazel Poa last month.

She wrote that the two are not really the same.

The motion of the PSP's Progress Singapore Party is the claim that the Government has not done enough to deliver affordable and accessible HDB Housing and Development Board flats, strengthen the owner-occupation intent of public housing, protect retirement adequacy or keep public housing inclusive. We don't agree with this claim. Ms Sim had responded to Mr Leong's adjournment motion in Parliament on the Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme SERS exercise last month.

Residents had to top up to buy a replacement flat of the same size with a fresh 99-year lease, as per the Leong said it differed from previous exercises. He said that the Ang Mo Kio exercised an epochal event in the history of public housing and said it was disingenuous for the Government not to admit to the different outcome.

Ms Sim said then that Mr Leong was deliberately misleading the public and creating false expectations, and that the Government's approach to the Ang Mo Kio Sers exercise has been consistent with that in previous exercises.