Public housing will always be kept affordable, says PM Wong

Public housing will always be kept affordable for Singaporeans, both now and in the future, said Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.

- Chin Soo Fang

He gave this assurance during a dialogue on Jan 21 with close to 900 student participants across various education institutions at the University Cultural Centre in NUS.

The Housing Board will continue to price new flats in relation to income and not the resale market, to make sure public housing remains affordable, PM Wong said.

"We are able, through heavy government subsidies, through what we do on the HDB side, to provide assurance to all of you, both now and in the future, that we will always keep public housing affordable for Singaporeans," he said.

The Urban Land Institute (ULI), a global research organisation, considers home ownership affordable when the ratio of the median home price to median annual household income is below 5.

This means that the flat's price is within five times of the buyer's annual household income.

According to a ULI report released in May, the ratio in Singapore for HDB flats is 4.7.

Besides housing affordability, PM Wong fielded questions on topics such as the Singapore Dream, geopolitics and same-sex marriage in a wide-ranging dialogue that lasted about 90 minutes.

It was organised by government feedback unit Reach and Varsity Voices, a student-led university initiative.

He acknowledged the anxiety over housing prices, including over flats that fetch more than $1 million on the resale market.

PM Wong shared that in the 70s, his parents bought an HDB flat for about $30,000.

"You may say, wow, so cheap. Today is so much more expensive, 10 times or more," he said.

"But remember, at that time, their salaries were nothing like today's salaries."