Saturday, May 30, 2009

Evil HDB profiteering at HDB owners' woes

From: "Fabriz"
Date: Sun, 31 May 2009 00:25:41 +0800
Local: Sun, May 31 2009 12:25 am
Subject: Re: Evil HDB profiteering at HDB owners' woes.

If not for this, where do you think Temasek got the money to "throw away" ?

"truth" wrote in message

> truth comment: to the pap leegime money is everything. singaporean
> welfare and life is nothing to them.

> Is the HDB profiteering from flat owners' woes?
> Saturday, 30 May 2009, 12:28 pm | 819 views

> Leong Sze Hian

> One out of every seven HDB flat owners have problems paying their mortgage
> loans. This seems to be what the statistics have revealed. Last year, the
> HDB visited 60,000 flats which had problems paying their loans and gave
> financial counseling to 35,000 households.

> This is 14 per cent of the estimated 420,000 HDB loan mortgages - or one
> in seven.

> As of October last year, 33,000 HDB loans were in arrears over three
> months. This is about eight per cent of the total number who took HDB
> loans.

> In both instances, the numbers are a cause for concern, especially at this
> time when Singaporeans are facing job insecurity and spiraling costs.

> The number of flats which have been repossessed or surrendered to the HDB
> because of non-payment of mortgage loans is another worry.

> According to a Berita Harian report, 1,350 HDB flats were surrendered to
> the HDB in the last four years.

> In February 2007, Parliament heard that 360 flat owners had voluntarily
> surrendered their flats from 2002 to 2006.

> This means that the average number of flats surrendered per annum has
> increased from 72 (2002 to 2006) to 318 (2005 to March 2009).


> This is an increase of about 342 per cent, or about one flat a day now.

> This figure, however, does not include HDB flats on bank loans which are
> reportedly being foreclosed at about 60 a month. It also does not include
> those in arrears who have sold their flats in the open market.

> HDB profiteering from flat owners' misery?

> When the HDB sends a notice of Compulsory Acquisition to flat owners, they
> are only given one month to vacate their flats, and only 90 per cent of
> the flat's valuation is used to offset the loan arrears.

> It is hard enough to lose one's home. Why does the HDB still want to make
> a profit of 10 per cent of the valuation?

> Why not give them a bit more time to find alternative accommodation?

> As a public housing authority with the mission to provide affordable
> housing for Singaporeans, is the HDB not in a sense, in breach of its
> fiduciary duty, in this arbitrary practice of eating up 10 per cent of the
> valuation?

> Are there any public housing authorities in the world that takes an
> additional 10 per cent profit on foreclosure?

> Parliamentarians may like to raise this issue with a view to refunding the
> "eaten up" valuation to all past foreclosed flat owners.

> What is the view of bodies like the Law Society of Singapore in this
> regard?

> In view of the above statistics, and with unemployment at a 5-year high of
> 4.8 per cent, 95,600 unemployed locals, and the record GDP contraction of
> 19.7 per cent in the first quarter, I would like to suggest that the HDB
> temporarily freeze asking those in arrears to surrender their flats.

> After all, as long as HDB flats appreciate at an average annual rate of
> more than the HDB concessionary loan rate of 2.6 per cent, every HDB flat
> may eventually be worth more than the outstanding loan and arrears,
> particularly when the current 13-year property bear market turns around.

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