In Parliament yesterday, MPs questioned National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan about the executive condominium (EC) scheme and whether the government will review the EC policy and implement tighter measures to regulate the market.
Mr Khaw shared that ECs are still relevant and aims to meet the aspirations of higher-income Singaporeans to own private housing in an affordable way.
He stated: “It is a wonderful scheme. It protects middle-income Singaporeans from competition and ensures a market-friendly way of allowing them to buy condominiums at very affordable prices.”
"If I can give you an analogy, it’s like offering you a Lexus at the price of a Corolla, but only Singaporeans have this privilege for (buying it at that price). And they know in due course the price will go up above the level of a Lexus, so I think it is a very good scheme."
However, he noted that the government will stay vigilant over abuse of the scheme. This after some developers appeared to have taken advantage of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) planning rules to build super-sized ECs.
Most recently, the launch of an S$2.05 million “presidential penthouse suite” in Tampines created much controversy with many Singaporeans raising concerns about housing affordability.
To correct this, the government announced new cooling measures last Friday, including a size cap of 160 sq m for all EC units and restrictions on dual-key units which can only be sold to buyers with multi-generational families.
Mr Khaw noted that the measures should return ECs to their original intent, and ensure developers build ECs to benefit the intended target buyers.
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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