Here are two differing reports on the same situation:
Imbalance in resale market.
Shortage of HDB flats.
My view
It is bad to treat property as an investment and to have property prices escalate to a high level, more than 5 years of family income. The high property prices will put an unfair burden on our younger generation, who has to work hard for a lifetime just to pay for a place to live in. This is one key reason why younger people do not want to get married and to start a family.
While social researchers may point to "urban lifestyle", they can look beyond this label to seek the underlying cause. Urban lifestyle means high property prices in the city. Most governments fail in their duty to the citizens in keeping the property prices affordable.
Singapore used to be a good example of urban housing development, but the situation had got out of hand over the past 25 years.
For private properties, it is alright to leave the investment decision to individuals if they think it is good as an investment, but for public housing, it is certainly not right...the problem is that there is little or "real" state subisidy hence the Govt is treating it as an "investment" using "market subsidy" argument especially for present day PTO flats.
ReplyDeleteAnd the HDB introduces DBSS flats and this makes it worst. And with rich China firms now bidding 10 out of 15 sites at ridiculous prices, the DBSS flats are closing or have overshot the highs of private properties in 1996 prices.