Debated in Parliament on 8 Apr 2025.
Mr Chua Kheng Wee Louis asked the Minister for National Development (a) in each of the last five years, what is the number of HDB resale transactions that were excluded from HDB's public InfoWEB and data.gov.sg platforms; (b) why were these transactions excluded; and (c) why were 127 resale transactions of SERS replacement flats with less than five years' occupancy between April 2022 and December 2024 excluded from the HDB's public InfoWEB and data.gov.sg platforms when these same transactions were included in the Resale Price Index calculations.
Housing and Development Board (HDB) resale flat transactions are conducted on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis and reflect prevailing market conditions. HDB publishes relevant resale data for transparency to minimise information asymmetry and enable the efficient functioning of the resale market.
Data on the prices of individual resale transactions is published on the HDB InfoWEB and data.gov.sg. This is meant to assist buyers and sellers to make informed decisions when negotiating resale flat prices. Therefore, resale transactions that do not reflect typical market transactions are not published as they are less relevant in helping buyers and sellers in price negotiations.
From 2020 to 2024, about 1,000 to 2,000 transactions a year were not published, out of about 25,000 to 31,000 resale transactions registered annually, or 4% to 6%. These include the 127 transactions involving the resale of Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS) replacement flats mentioned by the Member. These SERS replacement flats have longer remaining leases compared to typical resale flats, making them less relevant as a reference for price negotiations. Other atypical transactions, such as the resale of part-share and resale between related parties, are also not published.
The computation of HDB's Resale Price Index uses a hedonic regression methodology that controls for variations in the remaining leases of the flats that were transacted. Therefore, there is no need to exclude the SERS replacement flats that had longer remaining leases compared to typical resale flats.
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