Posted on September 25, 2009 - by Martin Lee

Is Property in Singapore Affordable?

Photo by woodleywonderworks

There has been a recent spate of news and articles to the Straits Times forum regarding the current state of property prices in Singapore. While the government has acknowledged that private property prices are starting to show signs of a bubble by a series of changes announced last week, they have maintained that public housing remains affordable by and large to the general population.

The criteria that they used as affordability is that a household should not spend more than 30% of their income on their property.

I would actually argue that housing has actually become less affordable (even if the above definition is met) compared to 30 years ago. While housing prices has increased more than 5-10 fold over the last 30 years, that certainly cannot be said of our income levels.

If the public housing today is affordable, then they would be super affordable 30 years ago. Read more…

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