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In his first speech on housing in Parliament, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan vowed to focus on making housing available to two groups of homebuyers within the next two years.
Newlywed first-timers and vulnerable families are the two groups of homebuyers who are at the top of his priorities, said Mr Khaw.
He said that he will commit to help all newlywed first-timers earning below $10,000 per month to get their first HDB home as soon as possible, and help them "meet an important social objective of helping them to settle down and start their families."
HDB is already building 50,000 flats in the first two years but remains undecided on the scale of the Built-To-Order (BTO) programme beyond 2012.
"If the demand remains strong, we have the resources and the capacity to build more than 100,000 HDB flats during this term of Government," said Mr Khaw.
He also mentioned that future BTO project launches may be in the proposed Bidadari estate, which can potentially house up to 12,000 units.
Tengah Town will also be a new HDB Town, with possibility of housing 56,000 units when fully developed. However, Mr Khaw said that no BTO projects will be launched in Tengah during this term of government.
As for the affordability of flats, Mr Khaw acknowledged that the worry out there is that HDB prices will continue to rise, which has "led to alarm and some panic demand".
He said that he is "tackling the issue of affordability head on" and that "newlyweds eyeing new HDB flats do not need to worry that BTO price will run ahead of their income".
"As long as construction costs do not rise dramatically, the BTO prices will stabilise.
"In this way, new HDB flats will always be affordable to the newlywed first-timers, provided that their expectation is realistic," said Mr Khaw.
Vulnerable families are the Housing Minister's second top priority to address the housing needs of families with household income below $1,500 per month.
As new homes are out of their reach for the moment, these families need subsidised rental flats.
More of such rental blocks are being built and Singaporeans can expect further improvement in the next couple of years, said Mr Khaw.
HDB is currently housing 44,000 such families in HDB rental flats, but another 1,600 families are waiting in queue.
Mr Khaw also said that the waiting time for a rental unit has been reduced to six months, which is still longer than what he hopes he can achieve.
The rental structure is also currently being reviewed by Mr Khaw and there are considerations on introducing more rental tiers with smaller increments in rental adjustments "so that the incentive to work harder and earn more is not unwittingly diminished."
As for other groups of home buyers, Mr Khaw said that he "will attend to them more fully in due course".
Mr Khaw ended the speech by saying that housing is a complex matter and there are no instant solutions, but he is confident that improvements for newlyweds and vulnerable families within two years will bring happiness to many families.
"The other housing segments will take a longer time to fix, and I seek Singaporeans’ understanding and patience," said Mr Khaw.
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