A public housing flat should be an affordable home for our families to live and grow up in. The original mission behind the Housing and Development Board (HDB), when it was set up in 1960, was to alleviate the severe housing shortage at that time by building affordable homes for the population. However in 1989, public housing flats took on another role as an appreciating asset for their lessees, when the Government announced several major policy changes with regard to HDB resale flats. First, the income ceiling for the purchase of resale flats was removed. This allowed people to buy HDB flats ..read more

Mr Speaker sir, the two motions before the House today touch on a subject that is near and dear to Singaporeans – housing. The first part of my speech will touch on the over-arching principles and values that should guide our housing policy. The bedrock principles that should guide our housing policies In the early years of our independence, HDB flats were built for rental and then later for sale primarily as affordable homes. But today, many younger Singaporeans feel that the Singapore dream of a HDB flat is increasingly out of reach or at least severely challenging. I spoke to a young Singap ..read more

Mr Speaker I would like to first declare my interest as an equity research analyst in a financial institution, covering the real estate industry. Mr Speaker, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” This saying is usually attributed to Albert Einstein, but one might argue also appears to be the current approach to the multitude of housing related issues we are seeing in Singapore today. HDB is prepared to launch up to 100,000 flats in total from 2021 to 2025, if needed.  HDB will continue to monitor housing demand and make adjustments, where necess ..read more

Mr Speaker, as we do our rounds with our constituents during our house visits, we would undoubtedly have met those who have expressed their concern about the rising cost of living. This is not a recent phenomenon. While rising prices of groceries or gas may have dominated our more recent conversations, fears about how it is increasingly difficult to live in Singapore have been shared many times over in the past. In Sengkang, I’ve spoken to residents—even elderly ones who own their own homes—who worry about how expensive buying a flat in Singapore is, and fear especially for their children and ..read more

Mr Speaker, I support the amendments in the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill. However I do have some concerns with the new proposed Section 17A which creates a presumption that the owners or tenants of the property are responsible if any refuse or article is deposited, dropped, placed, thrown, scattered or spilled in or into a public place from a residential flat (ie under section 17A(1) for the current section 17(1)(a), (d) and (f)) unless they can prove that the act was committed by another person, that the owners or tenants were not present at the flat or they are able to provid ..read more

Mr Speaker sir, the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Bill seeks to make several changes. One group of changes affects the licensing of cleaning businesses and the roll-out of the Progressive Wage Model for this sector. Another group of changes relates to the dumping of waste from vehicles and another extends the time period for which an offence can be determined. Sir, I do not oppose the Bill, as the measures are, taken as a whole, a step in the right direction for evolving the cleaning sector and regulating the penalty regime for littering and dumping. However, I will raise several poi ..read more

Mr Speaker, home is where the heart is. And at the heart of our public housing estates are our heartland retailers and hawker centres, which play an integral role in our lives throughout one’s life stages. Growing up as a child in Ang Mo Kio and certainly before the age of e-commerce, I still fondly recall how the unassuming neighbourhood centre had almost everything that we needed, with the wet market, hawker centre, coffeeshops, bakeries and minimarts serving our F&B needs, the friendly neighbourhood GP and dentists looking after our health needs and the retailers selling everything from ..read more

Mr Speaker, I understand that this motion—like similar ones I had spoken on in 2021 on contributions to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)—are largely routine and technical, and reflect our nation’s ongoing commitment as a responsible citizen in the international system. Funding rounds for the International Development Association (IDA) are similar, and occur every three years; the motion before us today is to provide said funding to IDA. In my earlier contribution to the IMF motion, I had made the case for why contributing to international development efforts can benefit us by enhancing ou ..read more

Mr Speaker, the two associated bills to amend the SkillsFuture Singapore (SSG) Agency and Skills Development Levy Acts are sensible efforts to improve regulatory oversight over SSG grantees and training providers, while simultaneously strengthening investigative powers available to the agency. As someone that had previously sought clarification on lapses identified by the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) for SkillsFuture grants, I support the revisions embedded in these two acts that aim to plug gaps in the framework. I support both Bills. My comments today will first focus on offering some cons ..read more

Over the years, I have met several residents who were undischarged bankrupts and whose estates were being managed by the Official Assignee (“OA”).  They shared with me their experience liaising with the OA officers for various purposes, ranging from proposing instalment payments of their debts to obtaining permission to leave the country.  While they had no complaint about the way they were treated, a common dissatisfaction was the perceived difficulty in contacting the OA officers, or delays in obtaining responses.  This was an issue I first raised a decade ago during MinLaw’s ..read more