Speech by 2M Indranee Rajah at the Huttons Annual Congress 2021
Aug 5, 2021
Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me to join you at the Huttons Annual Congress today.
Singapore’s economy has been badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Singaporeans and businesses have worked closely with the Government to weather the economic impact and keep ourselves as safe as possible. However, the pandemic situation is far from over and many countries are facing new waves of infection due to the new and more virulent COVID-19 virus variants. We are not yet out of the woods, and while we continue to navigate this economic turbulence, we need to focus also on industry transformation so that we can emerge stronger from these challenging times, and emerge stronger together.
Raising Professionalism
In this regard, I’m very heartened by the resilience of our real estate agencies and agents. The real estate industry has continued to digitalise and innovate. Our next step is to make sure individual agents can keep up with the pace of transformation – human capital needs to match digital capital. CEA introduced the SkillsFuture Study Award for the Real Estate Agency Industry in 2018 to support property agents like yourselves in taking courses to upskill. The 2021 SkillsFuture Study Award is now open for application. So if you meet the eligibility criteria, please do apply for the award.
More broadly, we are looking to enhance the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) ecosystem to equip agents with the necessary knowledge and skillsets to be professional, future-ready agents. In this aspect, CEA will be embarking on a joint study with the industry to advance and enhance professionalism for the real estate agency industry. I would like to thank Huttons for your support in contributing to this joint study, and also to acknowledge your efforts in investing resources to develop new courses for your agents.
Apart from this, raising professionalism, and inspiring consumer confidence and trust in the real estate agency industry continues to be a priority, and this must be done by and with the whole industry. This requires property agencies, property agents and industry associations to work together. On this note, almost 300 estate agencies representing more than 90% of agents have signed the Estate Agents Pledge since it was launched last year, as a sign of their commitment to delivering professional and trusted service to their customers. And this of course includes Huttons. So thank you very much.
Maintaining a Stable & Sustainable Property Market
Being directly involved in the property market, you would know that the property market has remained buoyant. While this is good for the real estate industry, the Government’s position has always been that property price increases should be sustainable and shouldn’t run ahead of economic fundamentals. Critically, Singaporeans should not purchase beyond what their own income can support and should maintain financial prudence in their property purchases. Buying a home is likely to be the single largest purchase for many Singaporeans, and there will be significant financial and social implications if home buyers are unable to fulfil their mortgage loan repayments due to loss of income or a rise in interest rates. The need for financial discipline is especially pertinent now, given the uncertain economic outlook. Property agents play an important role in providing balanced and sound advice to your clients, so that they can make informed decisions and exercise caution in their property purchase and buy within their means.
I would like to highlight two property agents from Huttons who have demonstrated professionalism when engaging with their clients.
• Tim Seow has assisted many of his clients in transacting property with professionalism and efficiency. But more than that, his clients have also shared that Tim understands that property purchases are one of the biggest financial decisions they will make in their lives and hence, ensures that buyers understand what to look out for when purchasing a property. His valuable advice and insights have resulted in many of them keeping in touch with him even after the transaction has been completed!
• Jeremy Lim is a firm believer in providing value-added and differentiated services to build long-term trust with his clients. Like Tim, Jeremy’s opinions and insights have resulted in many of his clients returning to him for property advice. Well done, Jeremy and Tim!
We look forward to being able to recognise more professionals like Jeremy and Tim. They have built honest relationships based on trust and values with their clients, that place the client’s long-term interests first.
Keeping Public Housing Inclusive
While I have this opportunity, let me also make a few remarks about housing in Singapore. Here, housing has always been more than just a place to live or an investment. For us, housing is also about home – both a personal home and the larger sense of Singapore as Home, best reflected in the National Day song composed by Dick Lee and sung by Kit Chan. You are all familiar with that. This is because in Singapore, our housing policies are built around our values. Our homes are places which help us to belong. And that is why our housing polices emphasise inclusivity and diversity. Hence, enabling Singaporeans of different races and backgrounds to live peacefully and harmoniously together is a big part of this.
When Singapore was still under colonial rule, the Raffles Town Plan, also known as the Jackson Plan, designated separate geographical zones for each ethnic group. Malays in one place, Chinese in another, Indians and Europeans lived in different areas and apart from each other. Such segregation made for easy administration from a colonial viewpoint. But it would not have helped newly independent Singapore on its journey to nationhood and our aspiration to become one united people and to build a democratic society regardless of race, language, or religion.
Looking at the experience of other cities, we knew that we could not leave this aspiration to chance or the invisible hand of the market. Hence, we introduced the policy which those of you who transact HDB flats would be familiar with – the Ethnic Integration Policy or EIP, which sets limits on the proportion of flats in each HDB block and neighbourhood that can be occupied by households from every ethnic group.
EIP was and remains an important means by which to realise our collective ideal – which is that Singapore should be a place where Singaporeans from all walks of life can integrate and interact with one another in our daily lives, not just at work, but in our neighbourhoods, schools, hawker centres and other common spaces.
The recent racist incidents show that we have not yet arrived at a point where one can say we are “post-racial” or “race-neutral”. Hence, it is important to continue the work of promoting multiracial understanding, tolerance and integration, bearing in mind that there is a natural and understandable tendency for different races to group together. As it is today, nearly one out of every three HDB blocks have reached one or more of the EIP limits. This can be seen across all ethnic groups, and in both mature estates with older Singaporeans, and newer estates with younger residents. This is so notwithstanding the EIP. So what this tells us is that integration is still a work in progress, although we have done well so far.
However, we are aware, as are you, that there is a small minority of cases where flat owners face difficulties selling their flats, when an EIP limit is reached. To assist such flat owners, HDB has exercised flexibility on a case-by-case basis to give owners more time to sell their flats, or even waive the EIP limits in exceptional circumstances. So if your clients face such difficulty, do advise them to approach HDB for assistance. We are also studying the situation to see what more can be done to mitigate the adverse impact of the policy on this group.
There is a second aspect of inclusivity and diversity that we must also be mindful of and this is to avoid segregation according to socio-economic status. In the past decade, the gap between the well-to-do and the less well-off has widened. And this is reflected in housing too.
With economic development, we have seen strong economic and social forces that lead to people concentrating in certain estates based on socio-economic status. This was reported in a TODAY article last week. We therefore need to think more deeply about how we can ensure that public housing, continues to be inclusive and accessible to all. This will become even more pertinent when public housing in prime locations gets off the ground.
We will be building public housing in prime locations like the city centre and the Greater Southern Waterfront. We are now thinking about how to ensure that these estates can remain inclusive over time, so that Singaporeans from all walks of life can afford to live, to work and to play together, even in prime locations.
This will require a new model for public housing in prime locations, to keep these flats affordable not only for the first buyer, but also for subsequent resale buyers as well. Some of you have been involved in our public engagements on the new model and we thank you for your contributions, both as citizens and as agents.
We must be steadfast in our commitment to keeping our estates inclusive and diverse, so that HDB estates can remain representative of our wider society. We hope that in the course of your work, you will help Singaporeans understand the need for these interventions, and to assist them to navigate the new policies with sound and professional advice.
Conclusion
As property agents, you play a key role in advising your clients and facilitating their property purchases. Besides understanding your clients’ requirements and helping them to search for suitable properties that meet their needs, it is important that you give accurate information and unbiased advice to help them make a considered decision. In so doing, you will not only be selling a house, but helping them to build a home. I also hope that you will help people to understand the values that underpin our housing policies. In so doing, you will not just be imparting information, but highlighting the shared values which are part of our Singapore identity, and thereby contributing to nation-building.
So with that, let me thank you once again and wish everybody a happy National Day!