I refer to the article “JTC gradually phasing out scheme for housing foreigners: Lee Yi Shyan” (Channel NewsAsia, Mar 12).
Public housing rent to foreigners since 1997?
It states that “the scheme was started in 1997 to address the lack of affordable housing for foreign talents.
He said in those days, HDB owners could only rent out rooms and not the entire flat, to locals and foreigners alike.
But this has changed since 2003, where HDB has allowed the rental of entire flats to both Singaporeans and foreigners.
Gradual phase-out of SHiFT?
Mr Lee said: “As rental supply increases, JTC has been gradually phasing out SHiFT through the sale of flats to eligible buyers, meeting HDB’s home ownership rules. JTC expects to continue to run down the stock of the remaining SHiFT flats as the tenancy agreements expire.””
No statistics?
The above reply in Parliament may be quite meaningless, as it is devout of even a single statistic.
For example, at its peak, what was the total number of flats rented out to foreign talents by JTC?
This may give us a better picture of the extent to which needy Singaporean families queuing for a HDB rental flat may be deprived of public housing that were given to foreigners instead.
How much revenue has JTC received from such rentals since 1997?
What is the rental charged to foreigners relative to the “from $26” rental for HDB flats charged to Singaporeans?
As to “But this has changed since 2003 – as rental supply increases, JTC has been gradually phasing out SHiFT through the sale of flats to eligible buyers”, when did JTC start phasing out SHiFT? – From 2003?
Can we have the statistics as to how much the SHiFT rental flats have been decreasing over the years? And also, how many SHiFT flats were sold to Singaporeans “meeting HDB’s home ownership rules”?
With regard to “JTC expects to continue to run down the stock of the remaining SHiFT flats as the tenancy agreements expire”, can we have the statistics as to how many flats’ tenancy agreements are expiring and when are the expiry dates?
When will the scheme be totally phased out?
Public housing to foreigners, not Singaporeans?
In respect of “He was responding to a question in Parliament by non-constituency MP Lina Chiam, on whether the government would consider suspending the scheme, to address the housing concerns of Singaporeans who cannot afford HDB flats.
Mrs Chiam had suggested renting these housing units currently under the scheme to them”, the fact that the HDB had just announced that it would increase the number of rental flats from 50,000 to 60,000 (“Government to increase supply of rental flats by 20% to 60,000“, Channel NewsAsia, Mar 11), shows that there may be many needy Singaporean families who need rental flats.
This shortage of HDB rental flats to meet the demand and needs of needy Singaporeans has been going on for decades. So, why did we and arguably are still continuing to rent much needed public housing to foreigners?
In this connection, with about 1,600 vacated SERS flats that have been leased to private operators to manage, of which a portion are allocated to needy Singaporean families at subsidised rates under the Interim Rental Housing (IRH) scheme, why not tell us how many public housing flats (HDB, JTC, SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust), etc) in total are leased to private operators to rent out for a profit? How many public flats in total are rented out to foreigners? (“HDB “takes no profit” from interim housing?“, Jan 9)
Leong Sze Hian
