THE $8,000 income ceiling for first-time buyers of public housing should be raised to help middle-income households.

That is because of rising resale and private property prices, and the growing number of households which earn $8,000 or more per month.

These points were raised by MP Christopher de Souza (Holland-Bukit Timah GRC) during yesterday's Budget debate.

He said raising the income ceiling was one of three ways which the Budget could 'achieve a better and more equitable distribution of our nation's wealth without discarding the tenets of workfare and meritocracy'.

The other two ways were investing resources into beautifying Singapore's common spaces, and making the Workfare Income Supplement scheme more sensitive to inflation.

Mr de Souza noted that it has been 14 years since the HDB last raised the income ceiling, from $7,000 to $8,000.

He added: 'The trailblazing prices of 2007 have scorched young first-time buying couples enough to jolt an increase in the income ceiling.'

The General Household Survey, he added, also shows that the proportion of resident households earning $8,000 and above a month has nearly doubled, from 10.85 per cent in 1995 to 19.9 per cent in 2005.

He said: 'Granted, these statistics do not show the age of residents in each household at the time their income exceeds $8,000.

'Nonetheless, the figures do show that a household income of $8,000 per month is becoming less exclusive.'

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