I happened to come across an article by Mr Alex Au, and I think you'll agree with him with many points in a new article he wrote recently. It will better support your arguments for living near one's workplace and I'm a keen supporter of this idea along side with you.
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/rail-interchange-upgraded-transportation-issue-much-wider-than-that/
Edward
Quote from the Yawning Bread article
It’s also time to rethink the sacred cow of home-ownership. The fact is, people switch jobs. Unless people can easily move to live closer to their new job, any hope of reducing commuter load will not be realised. As economists have known for eons, home ownership is a serious drag on residential mobility. Once committed to a huge purchase, it is very difficult to consider selling and moving. It gets impossible at certain times when prices dip below the historical purchase price of a home; who would want to sell at a loss? Therefore, a high ratio of renters in a population allows greater ease of matching people to jobs.
In any case, as I argued in an earlier article, everyone who is living in public housing today is deluding himself, thinking he “owns” his flat. He does not. What actually is happening is that he has paid 99 years’ rent in advance. In that case, if we’re actually renting anyway, why can’t we pay a month at a time? That allows people to move easily, enabling them a wider choice in the job market. People will naturally choose to live closer to their jobs, thus reducing commuter load.
Unquote
The rental price will shoot up and factoring transportation fees and whatsoever, the cost will be much higher than your expenditure per month if you were to stay by your rented '99 years' hdb unit.
ReplyDeleteThe HDB prices are too high. It is better to rent a flat and invest your money. After allowing for the money that yuo can earn on your investment, you will find that buying a property is not advantageous.
ReplyDeleteAlex Au's idea is very out-of-the-box.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth serious consideration but will probably have to be modified to allow for implementation.
But Singaporean citizens and leaders don't have the stomach for this type of "reform" using a blank piece of paper as a starting point for thinking & planning.
The military culture and mindset is too heavily embedded in the citizens and PAP leadership.
Soldiers can tell you how to fight and win a war.
Soldiers are unable to ask, think and debate "why fight in the first place?"