Alternative flat-booking system?
05:55 AM Mar 15, 2010
by Esther Ng
If about half the applicants offered a Built-To-Order flat reject it, is there something wrong with the system?
Ngee Ann Polytechnic real estate lecturer Nicholas Mak thinks a longer list of flats could be offered to home seekers, which they could bid or ballot for. That means paying more for a choice flat.
Unlike the BTO, private home buyers can choose more than one unit if the one they want has been bought, he said.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said there is already a price differential between flats on high floors and low floors, those with a good view and those without one.
"Could we widen that differential? Sure we could, and I think HDB continuously looks at that," he said.
"(But) there are cases where people rejected flats not because it is not priced low enough but simply because they have their minds and their eyes set on a particular flat."
On the lead time of three years for BTO, Mr Mah said it was no different from the private property market and that there is a buffer of 5,000 to 6,000 flats annually, for which home buyers could ballot.
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