Netizen Calls Out Denise Phua After She Claims A $140k BTO Can Be Paid Off Within 1-2 Years

February 9, 2023

2 minute read

Ms Denise Phua, MP for Jalan Besar GRC, has been criticised by many singaporeans after her speech on Monday about BTO affordability cost.

In her speech, she commented that a BTO flat that would cost S$140,000 would only take one to two years of one’s annual pay to pay off the amount.

Here’s how the many netizens responded on the internet.

According to one of the netizen’s rough calculation, Denise Phua claims a $140k BTO can be paid off within 1-2 years.

Since it’s impossible to put 100% of your income into housing payments, the household income must be higher.

Assuming the household puts 30% of the income to housing payment, $140k/100*30=$466,666.67 annual household income required.

Assuming a best case scenario of a DINK couple bidding for a BTO flat, that’s an average annual income of $233,333, or or $19,444 monthly income.

Or if it’s paid off over 2 years, an average monthly income of almost $10k is needed.

I mean, it’s affordable to her, a mayor who earns more than $1 million a year, but I’m pretty sure the average Singaporean doesn’t earn anywhere near that sum.

Ms Phua is a MP & also the Mayor of the Central Singapore District since 2014. Her annual salary is S$852,500, which consists of the Mayor pay of S$660,000 plus the annual MP allowance of $192,500.

Her statement made many netizens furious, some of them pointed out her salary vs common people’s earning.

“Inconvenient truth”

“Easy for her to say when she get paid more than $600k as a mayor, and another almost $200k as a MP”. Inconvenient truth.

“Out Of touch”

“Proves again, MPs are overpaid to the point that they are out of touch from normal Singapore citizens. They can no longer represent us, cos they no longer feel our pain and worries”.

“Don’t eat for two years”

Median salary is 5070 in 2022, inclusive of employer cpf. That’s 3.45k after deducting employee and employer cpf contribution. Assuming a couple both earning median salary, yes 140k is possible in 2 years if they don’t eat, drink, pay bills, take vacations, or even anything that requires them to spend money.