SINGAPORE - Senior Minister of State for National Development Sim Ann called on Non-Constituency MP Leong Mun Wai to be responsible in debating policies, as she took him on for saying the Government had been disingenuous in handling a public en bloc scheme.

Ms Sim said the Progress Singapore Party (PSP) NCMP was “deliberately misleading the public” and creating false expectations, as she responded on Monday to his adjournment motion on the Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) exercise.

Mr Leong said it differed from past exercises, as residents had to top up to buy a replacement flat of the same size with a fresh 99-year lease. He called the Ang Mo Kio exercise an “epochal event” in the history of public housing, and said it was disingenuous of the Government not to admit to the different outcome even till today.

He suggested that the reason it has not done so is that doing so would mean the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers) is not a viable solution to the lease decay problem.

In response, Ms Sim said the Government’s approach to the Ang Mo Kio Sers exercise has been consistent with that in past exercises.

“Instead of conflating issues, confusing issues or quite deliberately misleading the public by shaping ungrounded expectations of schemes, creating goalposts as it were, I hope that Mr Leong will engage in upcoming debate responsibly,” she said, referring to her invite to him to debate housing policies in Parliament, which the PSP has accepted.

The Housing Board had chosen four blocks in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3 for Sers in April 2022, and affected residents were unhappy at having to fork out more money to buy similar-sized units at a replacement site located next to ITE College Central.

Mr Leong noted that National Development Minister Desmond Lee had cited lease decay as the reason why residents had to top up for new flats. But he said the minister did not explain why Marsiling residents living in nine blocks acquired by HDB for the Woodlands Checkpoint expansion did not have to top up for their replacement flats, despite having 58 to 59 years left on their lease - slightly longer than the 57 years for the Ang Mo Kio flats.

He contended that lease decay has affected prices of HDB flats in mature estates more than those in non-mature estates, while prices of new flats in mature estates rose faster as they benefit from good amenities and location.

This is the key reason why Ang Mo Kio residents have suffered a worse outcome than that of Marsiling residents and past Sers exercises, he added.

He also said the different outcome was why the Government introduced a 50-year lease and lease buyback options for Ang Mo Kio residents.

In response, Ms Sim said Sers compensation was never pegged to a new flat of a similar size with a 99-year lease, and in a similar location. Rather, it is independently assessed based on market value, she added.

In earlier Sers exercises, the acquired flats were generally younger, so most owners were able to afford a subsidised replacement flat with similar attributes on a 99-year lease, she said.

A flat with 57 years left on its lease would fetch a lower value on the resale market than one with 70 years left, she noted. “This was what happened in the case of the Ang Mo Kio Sers exercise, and would in fact be the case in future Sers exercises.”

She said: “This is quite in contrast with a picture that Mr Leong was trying to paint, which is that somehow an epochal moment was made possible without the Government admitting so. I’m afraid Mr Leong is painting quite an incorrect picture here.”

Of the Ang Mo Kio Sers residents, 99 per cent did not need to top up for a similar flat type with a full 99-year lease, or a similar sized flat on a 50-year lease, Ms Sim said.

In his speech, Mr Leong also said Sers has implications for Vers.

The Government had touted Vers as a solution to lease decay, but Vers residents may have to “pay a lot more cash” or move to a cheaper area with the proceeds, he said.

“Vers will be doomed if the Government uses the same compensation formula as Sers,” he added.

Ms Sim said that while the details of Vers have not been announced, the Government has said compensation “will not be as generous as for Sers” and that there will not be replacement flats.

“If you examine what Mr Leong has been doing, I think he has been reshaping people’s expectations of the scheme... I would put it, Mr Speaker, to the House that it is Mr Leong who is being disingenuous in blurring the distinction between a market expectation and a policy commitment,” she said.