Speech by Minister Desmond Lee at the UOB Secured Loans' Chinese New Year Gala Dinner
Feb 20, 2024
1. Thank you for inviting me to celebrate the Lunar New Year together with all of you this evening. We’ve had a very auspicious start, and let me wish all of you good health, happiness, family bliss and prosperity in the Year of the Dragon.
Singapore’s Social Compact Involves a Whole of Society Effort
2. An important aspect of Singapore’s refreshed social compact rests on a collaborative effort across society. You heard Jacquelyn earlier speak about the work that you’ve done, and the common thread that runs through her speech is about collaboration with all of you, partners in the sector.
3. Today, we are grateful for continued blessings and meaningful partnerships as we usher in the new Lunar year. I would like to thank UOB for your commitment to building an inclusive society through UOB’s Heartbeat CSR programme.
4. Indeed, the impact of your initiatives to give children a strong head-start in life, support their education, as well as your efforts to champion Southeast Asian art and ink art have improved the lives of many.
5. I understand that UOB has commissioned a painting by renowned local artist Lester Lee to be auctioned tonight, to raise funds for the Children's Aid Society or CAS.
6. Established in 1902, the CAS is one of Singapore’s oldest philanthropic organisations. CAS supports children and young people in Melrose Home, by providing care and protection. To date, Melrose Home has provided a safe haven to over 6,000 children and young people, helping them overcome adverse life circumstances such as abuse or neglect. Speak to any of the social workers and they will share with you the amount of pain and angst that many of these lives have had to endure, the amount of work our social workers have put in, and the amount of love and compassion they have to give, in order to embrace these children with broken lives.
7. At Melrose Home, CAS provides counselling and specialist therapy to families facing multiple stressors, and they support about 200 children, youths and families in the community at any given time.
8. As patron of the charity, I have witnessed the hard work, love and dedication of my colleagues at CAS. They have persevered in what is an incredibly challenging but deeply rewarding field of social work, to provide shelter and a place of healing for our children.
9. All proceeds from tonight’s auction will go towards supporting the construction of Melrose Village – a purpose-built facility to enhance the quality of round-the-clock care and support that the Children’s Aid Society provides. I know many of you are here from the built environment sector, and here you have one of the oldest charities in Singapore seeking to build a home, a shelter and a safe harbour for children, and I seek your support for this important work.
10. I thank UOB and all of you here this evening, for your generosity in supporting the work that Children’s Aid Society does.
11. UOB’s dedication towards the community is perhaps best encapsulated by the generosity of the late Dr Wee Cho Yaw. Dr Wee championed initiatives that provided educational opportunities to the underprivileged, ensuring that every child had access to quality education regardless of their background.
12. He was instrumental in the formation of the Chinese Development Assistance Council, in providing bursaries to lower income families and academically weaker students, helping them to level up. I am glad his legacy lives on with UOB’s Wee Cho Yaw Future Leaders Award scholarship programme to provide financial assistance to students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
13. Dr Wee serves as a reminder of the profound impact that one individual can have on the wider community, inspiring all of us to give back and make a positive difference in the lives of many others.
Meeting the Evolving Housing Aspirations of Singaporeans
14. Having established the importance of a strong social compact in Singapore to foster a sense of unity and shared responsibility, let me turn to how the social compact has played a pivotal role in shaping a critical aspect of our society, housing.
15. You would have heard about the Long-Term Plan Review and Forward SG Housing Conversations. The Long-Term Plan Review is an exercise we undertake every decade. Once every 10 years, we look beyond our immediate horizon, and look far afield to what Singapore may look like in 50 years’ time. Only in a small island city state like ours with forefathers who looked afar, and a generation that continues to embody the DNA of planning for a city state into the future, do we have an exercise like this, looking 50 years into the future. And as part of this exercise and as part of Forward Singapore, which looks at the social compact between government and people, and between Singaporeans of this generation, and of Singaporeans in the next generation, we had a range of conversations, including housing. During those conversations – which were robust and empathetic, Singaporeans from all walks of life shared with us their views on what we should consider when shaping our future social compact on homes and housing.
16. Many participants shared a common desire for more accessible, diverse and affordable housing options, and growing aspirations to stay in more central locations, especially near to ageing parents.
17. We will be focusing a lot of our efforts this year to introduce the new HDB framework of Standard flats, Plus flats, and Prime flats, from the second half of 2024, and we will be launching more homes in central locations in Singapore. Classifications are intended to drive towards social goals. I’ve said time and time again, we are a social ministry. We build homes and infrastructure, but all of these are in the service of society and the families that form the bedrock of society. Through this new classification, we hope to ensure that in all parts of Singapore, including in very central desirable locations, we have housing that provides homes to a more diverse range of Singaporeans, and ensure that as our resources get tighter in future, and as our demands grow, our subsidies and schemes and programmes remain fair in the manner in which they are distributed.
18. At the same time, you may remember that we introduced Long-stay Serviced Apartments last year, which will help cater to Singaporeans’ greater diversity in housing preferences, for example, younger Singaporeans who want to rent as a start.
19. Even as we adjust our housing policies to keep pace with the evolving social compact – keeping public housing affordable, meeting the housing aspirations of Singaporeans including the next generation, and helping Singaporeans own their own homes remain key national priorities for us, and we are committed to upholding these. After all, our homes provide a basic foundation for us to raise our families, and bring up our children, and build strong communities.
Promoting a Stable and Sustainable Property Market
20. Now as part of our social compact on housing, we recognise the importance of keeping the property market stable and sustainable. There are encouraging signs that our efforts to stabilise the market are bearing fruit. HDB resale prices rose 4.8% last year, less than half of the increase in the year before. BTO application rates for first-timer home buyers have also come down. Price growth in the private residential market has also moderated, from 8.6% in 2022 to 6.8% in 2023.
21. We expect that the housing market will continue to stabilise in the coming year, as a significant supply of new homes will come onstream, and with global economic activity is expected to ease further, moderating demand.
22. Buyers, on their part, are increasingly prudent in their housing purchases, and we can see that in their behaviour in the market. This way, they won’t overstretch themselves as domestic mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated for some time.
23. I would like to thank all of you here, our real estate stakeholders for your close partnership and constructive feedback and ideas regarding the property market. Lenders play a pivotal role – your financial support enables many Singaporeans to achieve their housing aspirations.
24. The Government regularly engages and gathers feedback from all stakeholders and the public to ensure a more stable and sustainable property market. Two revisions to our Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty (ABSD) regime announced recently during Budget 2024 illustrate this. First, we have introduced flexibility to the ABSD Housing Developers Regime to address the difficulties that developers may face in selling all their units in a development despite their best efforts. Second, single Singaporeans aged 55 and above who sell their first private residential property within six months after purchasing a lower-value replacement private property will be able to claim a refund of ABSD paid on the replacement private property, subject to conditions. These address feedback from single seniors who wish to monetise their private homes, for example, by right-sizing, to supplement their retirement needs.
Conclusion
25. In closing, let me thank you once again for your close partnership and generosity over the years. We will continue to engage you, engage Singaporeans on how to further strengthen our social compact on this island city state and cater to our evolving housing aspirations. We will also work closely with individuals, businesses, and the community, to support those who need extra support.
26. On this note, I wish all of you a Happy Lunar New Year, good health, happiness, success and prosperity to one and all. Thank you.