Examining the development of Singapore's public housing policies : does it meet the needs of the people?

• Main Authors: Tan, Kit Yee, Yoon, Zhen Yu
• Other Authors: Chen Chung-An
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Political science::Public administration::Asia::Singapore
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/76690
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Singapore’s public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board, has been extraordinarily successful in housing Singapore residents. Today, 91% of Singapore’s residents own their own homes, with 78.7% of them living in public flats. The high homeownership rate has been facilitated by government policy permitting Singaporeans and Permanent Residents to pay for their public flats’ monthly mortgages with pre-retirement withdrawals from their social security savings accounts, and the belief that these flats can later be monetized to finance one’s retirement. Yet, to aid retirement funding, public housing flats’ values must rise. This conflicts with the government’s goal of keeping public flats affordable for new entrants in the housing market. Successfully balancing these conflicting demands necessitate continued government intervention and monitoring. In this paper, using an exploratory research approach, we assess how developments in housing policy have affected certain groups, and whether these developments are adequate in meeting the evolving needs of the people.