Debated in Parliament on 3 Jul 2017.
Mr Gan Thiam Poh asked the Minister for National Development (a) how many current HDB dwellers concurrently own one and more than one private property respectively with a breakdown into residential and commercial private properties; (b) of these HDB dwellers, how many of them are servicing both the HDB housing loan and private bank loans; and (c) whether the Ministry will consider allowing only those who have completed paying the HDB housing loan fully to invest in private residential properties.
As at 30 April 2017, about 54,300 Housing and Development Board (HDB) households, or less than 6% of all HDB households, concurrently own private properties. Of these, the vast majority (about 80%) own only one private property. By property type, close to 80% of these households own just residential properties, while the remainder own commercial properties (such as shop houses, hawker stalls and warehouse spaces) or a combination of both.
Among HDB households which concurrently own private properties, about 7,100, or 13%, are servicing their HDB housing loans. HDB does not have data on whether these households have outstanding bank loans on their private properties.
Nonetheless, there are existing measures to safeguard financial prudence and prevent individuals from over-leveraging when they purchase properties. For instance, an individual with an outstanding HDB loan will be subject to a higher cash downpayment and a tighter loan-to-value limit when he borrows to purchase a private residential property. Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty will also apply to his second and subsequent property purchases. In addition, he will be subject to the Total Debt Servicing Ratio framework, which requires a financial institution to take into consideration his total outstanding debt obligations when assessing his loan application. This ensures that the borrower’s total monthly debt repayment obligations do not exceed 60% of his monthly income.
We will continue monitoring the market closely and will review the necessary measures as conditions evolve.
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