Your Say: Relook resale levy for long-time HDB owners who want to sell their first flats

After a long lull, with Covid making us all serious, we return once again to the wonderful world of the self-centred. Today's story is about a man who would like two bites of the cherry and thinks he should be given those two bites. (I have mellowed in my old age, and am unable to come up with sarcastic remarks for his arguments, so, feel free to add your own. I have found that such self-centred and self-absorbed people aren't worth arguing with or even debating with. They just believe the world is unfair to them, and nothing you say will change their minds.)

Mr Teo Kueh Liang bought his first flat in Clementi in 1984 and has been living there for nearly 40 years.

TEO KUEH LIANG

May 3, 2022


I was glad to learn that the Housing and Development Board (HDB) will launch around 1,600 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats at Farrer Park in three years’ time.

However, as a second-time HDB buyer, I am concerned about paying the HDB’s resale levy if I choose to buy a new flat.

I bought my first flat in Clementi in 1984 and have been living there for nearly 40 years.

The HDB’s website says that the resale levy is meant to reduce the subsidy given for a second subsidised flat, ensuring a fairer allocation of subsidies. This must be paid using the flat sale proceeds or in cash.

Before March 3, 2006, the levy was pegged to a percentage of the flat’s selling price, or 90 per cent of its market valuation, whichever was higher.

For flats sold on or after that date, the levies are fixed depending on flat type.

Accordingly, I would need to pay a S$40,000 levy to sell my four-room unit.

However, the flat's value has depreciated as it is only about six decades away from its 99-year lease’s expiry.

Hence, the net sales proceeds of the flat would be substantially diminished, and if I factor in the resale levy, it will be a financial blow to me.

When HDB flat dwellers have lived in their first home for 40 years or more, this proves that they are genuinely interested in occupying and treating their flat as their loved and safe shelter.

Could the HDB review or relax the resale levy by waiving or reducing it for second-time buyers, who intend to sell their first home after living in it for years?