Speech by 2M Indranee Rajah at Huttons Gala Award

Apr 8, 2024

Mr Mark Yip, Chief Executive Officer, Huttons

Ladies and Gentlemen

 Introduction

Good evening. I am delighted to join you at the gala awards today.

Let me begin by congratulating all award recipients. The awards are a recognition of your hard work, service excellence and professionalism. Well done!

I would also like to thank Huttons for its valuable contributions over the years. As one of the largest agencies in Singapore, Huttons is a key partner in our real estate sector, helping Singapore achieve a prosperous yet sustainable property market, and at the same time ensuring risks are well mitigated.

Today’s theme is “Driven by Dreams”. For Huttons, dreams don’t just remain dreams. Through passion, hard work, professionalism and commitment to excellence, you also turn your dreams into reality.

Huttons has been recognised as the fastest growing agency for the third consecutive year and is included in Singapore's Fastest Growing Companies 2024 list for the second consecutive year. Huttons was also recognised in The Straits Times’ 2023 “Singapore’s Best Customer Service” list. These achievements are made possible by a strong and capable leadership team, as well as exemplary professionalism, high service standards and competency. Today, Huttons is reaping the rewards of these collective efforts, and we are here to celebrate your success.

Having arrived at this point, the question is, how do you continue to maintain this level of success and recognition and grow and surpass it going forward? In the face of geopolitical uncertainty, economic challenges, increased competition and technological advancements, it is important that you strive to be at the cutting edge of your sector and continue to acquire new knowledge and new skills to stay ahead.

Against this backdrop, I would like to touch on three broad areas: first, some updates on our property market; second, the role of real estate agencies and professionals in combatting money laundering and terrorism financing; and thirdly, how you can continue to excel and achieve success.

Market Updates and Trends

Over the past 2 years, we embarked on the Forward Singapore exercise to refresh our social compact and chart our way forward as a united nation. More than 200,000 citizens participated in this exercise, giving us an invaluable insight into Singaporeans’ aspirations, hopes and dreams.

Homeownership is close to the hearts of Singaporeans and remains a key aspiration. We are committed to helping them to achieve this aspiration. We will continue to provide housing options to meet different budgets and needs. Our home ownership rate is around 90%, one of the highest in the world. Of this, 80% is public housing, a testament to the quality and affordable homes HDB has built over the decades.

As you know, COVID-19 had a significant impact on our construction sector and our housing market. There were major supply and manpower disruptions which held up our construction schedule. We also saw strong demand, in part as more Singaporeans move out to live on their own earlier. This resulted in an imbalance in demand and supply, inadvertently driving up housing prices and rents for both the public and private housing markets.

The government has been working hard to address this imbalance. In 2021 we committed to launching 100,000 new flats by 2025. As of February this year, we have launched more than 67,000 flats – two-thirds of our commitment. We will launch another 19,600 flats this year and are well on track to meeting our 2025 target.

We have also introduced more flats with Shorter Waiting Times (SWT). These flats generally have waiting times of less than 3 years. This helps young couples get their own homes and start their families earlier. So if you know of couples looking for a BTO, please share the good news with them. HDB will launch 2,800 SWT flats this year, 4 times the number of such flats offered last year. With that, HDB would have achieved its target of launching around 2,000 to 3,000 such flats per year, one year ahead of schedule.

To help married couples who have booked their BTO flat but need temporary accommodation pending the completion of their BTO flats, we introduced the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme, or PPHS. This has been well received, but due to the COVID crunch, the demand currently still exceeds the supply. As such, in this year’s Budget we introduced the Parenthood Provisional Housing Scheme (Open Market) Voucher. The voucher helps eligible couples defray part of the cost of renting from the open market. So if you’re helping them to find rentals on the open market, it’s good for you to know the PPHS voucher is available.

 On the private property market, we have also ramped up supply. In 2023 alone, we launched 9,250 units under the Government Land Sales Programme, or GLS. This was the highest annual supply in the last ten years. We are watching the market carefully and will inject more supply if necessary. In total, around 43,000 public and private homes have been completed last year. This is the largest number of homes completed in a single year since 2018. We remain on track to complete another 28,000 homes this year and 24,000 homes next year, making a total of close to 100,000 private and public homes between 2023 and 2025. 

In parallel, we have implemented three rounds of cooling measures since December 2021 to moderate housing demand, and to encourage greater financial prudence among homebuyers. We are seeing the effect of these measures. Both our public and private residential markets are stabilising, with prices, rents and transaction volumes moderating to more sustainable levels.

In the private residential market, prices have moderated from the 2.8% increase in the previous quarter, to a 1.5% increase in the first quarter of 2024. HDB resale prices rose 4.9% in 2023, less than half of the 10.4% increase in 2022, and the 12.7% increase in 2021. Based on our flash estimates, over the past 6 months, prices increased by 2.8%, similar to the increase in the preceding period. These figures are encouraging. We will continue to monitor the property market and calibrate our measures accordingly.

While there have been media reports on million-dollar HDB resale transactions, the fact of the matter is that such cases remain a minority of HDB resale transactions. The vast majority of HDB flats remain affordable and accessible to Singaporeans. Every year there are approximately 28,000 resale transactions. More than 8 in 10 first-time homebuyers are able to service their HDB loans using their CPF with little or no cash payments. We are committed to ensuring that HDB flats remain affordable and accessible.

While we can expect the housing market to continue to stabilise this year, in light of ongoing geopolitical conflicts, the economic outlook is uncertain. Domestic mortgage rates are expected to remain at higher levels compared to the past. So, let us continue to encourage buyers to exercise financial prudence in their flat purchases.

The real estate sector and Anti-Money Laundering (AML)

Next, I want to touch on Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and the real estate sector. Properties are high value assets. Not unnaturally, money launderers will seek to park their illegally obtained money in properties. Given that property transactions are facilitated by real estate agencies and agents, you play an important role as gatekeepers in our AML efforts.

As you may know, I chair the Inter-Ministerial Committee on AML measures. I recently had a dialogue with real estate agencies and professionals to discuss how we can strengthen our system.

You have given me valuable feedback on some gaps that need to be closed. We are also looking into how you can do better due diligence checks and file STRs more easily. We are also looking into training real estate professionals on how to carry out this gatekeeper role better.

 The key message that I want to get across however is this: this is not something that either government or real estate agencies and professionals can do alone. We need to work as a team to uphold Singapore’s reputation and protect our financial system and property market from being abused by criminals. So I ask for your support and collaboration on this important endeavour. 

Continuing to excel through change

 We are living in an increasingly interconnected world. Technology is advancing faster than we can imagine. Today we are seeing the growth of generative AI. These powerful AI tools are impacting all industries, forcing businesses to rethink how they operate. It has given rise to entirely new industries. 

But by the same token, it can also destroy many traditional businesses and jobs. To stay relevant, the real estate sector will have to harness technology and see it as a friend, not a foe.

Hence, I am heartened to know that Huttons is doing just that, incorporating AI technology in your products, to facilitate your engagement and interaction with your customers. Through Huttons’ Super App and SuperPal applications, detailed reports, planning and financial calculations are just a click away.

Huttons has also launched an Integrated Transaction System to streamline various transaction and administrative processes, which includes providing comprehensive insights of your sales performance and reports. This allows you to strategically plan for your future growth.

Continual upskilling and learning is key to remaining relevant. I am glad that Huttons has engaged the Institute for Adult Learning to refresh your training roadmap and review your training programmes, to better prepare your agents for the future. These training programmes will equip you with the latest knowledge and skills and enhance your productivity and efficiency.

In this regard I also want to draw your attention to the SkillsFuture Level Up Programme for Singaporeans aged 40 and above which was announced by DPM Wong in Budget 2024. So this is not just for you, it’s also for your family members and friends, if they are aged 40 and above. 

It has 3 components: firstly, a $4000 SkillsFuture Credit (Mid-Career) top-up which can be used for selected courses; secondly, a Mid-Career Enhanced Subsidy for another publicly funded full-time diploma, which means even if you already have a diploma, degree, NITEC or Higher NITEC, you can now still go for another diploma, which is publicly funded. And finally, the Mid-Career Training Allowance for up to 24 months for selected full time courses.

Huttons has also contributed to digitalisation of the real estate industry. As a member of the Alliance for Action, or AfA, on Accurate Property Listings, Huttons, together with other industry stakeholders, contributed time and money towards developing a prototype to address the longstanding pain-point of dummy, unauthorised, inaccurate, and duplicate property listings.

The AfA members have accepted the completed prototype, with a view for CEA to develop it into a full-scale platform that can be used by property agencies and agents in the future.

CEA will continue to partner with stakeholders such as Huttons to work towards a more seamless and efficient property search experience for consumers and property agents.

Conclusion

I would like to commend Huttons for your forward-looking approach and your efforts towards transformation of the real estate sector. I wish everyone here good health and continued prosperity. Thank you and have a wonderful evening.