HDB CONSTRUCTION COSTS REVEALED

Finally an article to show the exact actual figures and stats.


http://therealsingapore.com/content/hdb-construction-costs-revealed

Construction costs of public housing are deliberately omitted out in every price list of the HDB’s latest Build-to-order (BTO) flats. Like the cooling off day and all other weird PAP practices, the reason is again political. Imagine how ugly the PAP will look if Singaporeans know how much profits a publicly funded statutory board like the HDB is profiting off a 25 year long mortgage debt of ordinary citizens with one of the lowest domestic purchasing power among developed countries [Source]. Then again, just look at how benevolent and generous PAP is with their HDB grants when construction costs are disregarded and the market price benchmark is adopted instead. It is no wonder the PAP can claim that HDB is bleeding so much that they are $1 Billion poorer every year from “helping” Singaporeans [Source].

Leaving the topic of poor domestic purchasing power for another day, the focus is of this article is to provide a close estimate of how much profits HDB is earning per unit flat.

Let’s take the March 2013 BTO exercise as an example:

Project	Flat Type	Selling Price (excluding Grants)	Selling Price (inclusive of Grants)
Non-Mature Towns/Estates
Compassvale Cape	Studio Apartment	From $88,000	-
	3-room	From $189,000	From $159,000
	4-room	From $284,000	From $269,000
	5-room	From $365,000	From $355,000
Compassvale Helm	Studio Apartment	From $88,000	-
	4-room	From $304,000	From $289,000
	5-room	From $372,000	From $362,000
Matilda Portico	4-room	From $294,000	From $279,000
	5-room	From $363,000	From $353,000
SkyPeak @ Bukit Batok	2-room	From $117,000	From $57,000
	3-room	From $209,000	From $174,000
	4-room	From $294,000	From $279,000
	5-room	From $411,000	From $401,000

Below are the construction costs of these BTO flats in Singapore dollars using an international project management company Turner and Townsend’s cost estimation [Source]:

2 room HDB flats – 45 sqm – $67,500
3 room HDB flats –  60 sqm – $90,000
4 room HDB flats – 90 sqm – $135,000
5 room HDB flats – 110 sqm – $165,000

With prices less than half of HDB’s selling prices without grants, how much profits do you think the HDB is making even after throwing in a $30,000 grant? Don’t you think Singaporeans could have more access to affordable housing by shutting down the inefficient HDB stat board and pass all construction of “affordable” quality type of housing to the private sector instead?

WikiTemasek

TRS Media Partner

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