There is no evidence that specific buyer groups, like permanent residents (PRs) and private property owners (PPOs) are driving up prices of HDB flats.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told Parliament on Friday that the median cash-over-value (COV) paid by PRs have been the same as the overall median COV paid for resale flats for the last two quarters.
'Cases of PRs paying high COV are the exception, not the rule,' Mr Mah said.
He said of the 37,205 resale transactions in 2009, 58 cases had COV exceeding $70,000 (US$49,995).
Of this, only eight cases or 14 per cent involved PRs.
Mr Mah added while PPOs pay higher COVs in general, their numbers are not large enough to drive up prices.
'If we banned PPOs from buying HDB resale flats, what about HDB owners buying private properties? Should we ban that too?' he asked.
'I would urge that we take a longer-term view and not over-react, and do things we regret and have to reverse down the road.'
Source: Business Times, 5 Mar 2010
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