the friends around me are all starting to get married, so sometimes they talk about property. which had somewhat piqued my interest as well. in housing prices, not marriage. so anyway, i was horrified that it costs $562,000 nowadays to afford a NEW 5-room flat (120 sqm, dbss) in amk nowadays. 30 years ago, the same flat would cost like $70,000, $100,000 max.
well even taking into account inflation of about 3% a year since 1980, that is still like a 500% increase in hdb prices! but salaries have only at most, doubled in numerical value for the averageman since then.
for its part, honest hdb had changed its mission statement from aiming to provide low cost housing to "affordable" housing for the general populace. but what is affordable? in no way does a $500,000 30-year mortgage sound like affordable to me!
so now, there is a lot of talk about all the problems plaguing singapore, like our low TFR, foreign competition, rising cost of living, and i have figured that the most effective solution would be to tackle the root cause, which is to keep housing (and specifically public housing) prices low, because:
- young couples cannot afford to buy houses, how to get married?
- no marry no babies.
- no babies means more foreign talent.
- more foreign talent means artificially depressed wages.
- rich get richer, poor get poorer.
as a result, those who eventually settle down and have a family in singapore would find that they have extinguished their cpf savings paying for their mortgage by the time their children are of university-going age. so what happens now? their children probably would take a loan from the bank to finance their studies, get into debt even before they graduate, and then the entire cycle starts again.
you may say that i'm whining, just complaining but not suggesting any solutions to solve the problem. but hey i'm not a million-dollar paid minister, so don't expect me to do the thinking for you.
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