Remarks from MND Minister Lawrence Wong that the Government is looking into the ageing HDB lease issue were mostly welcomed by observers yesterday, even as concerns remained over the fate of older flats. ERA KEO Eugene Lim welcomed the Government’s move to “look seriously into more solutions to tackle the ageing lease issue”. “The fact that we do not have a big problem now, does not mean we will not have a big problem in the future,” he said. OrangeTee head of research and consultancy Christine Sun said: “If HDB owners can no longer get the same kind of returns from selling their flat, they may consider the potential rental income it can fetch.” NUS real estate professor Sing Tien Foo said yesterday that lease extensions without intensification of land use through redevelopment could have serious impacts on HDB flat supply in the long term. The lease issue became a hot topic following a blog post by Mr Wong last year, when he warned that not all old flats will be eligible for SERs.... Continue Reading