Our alternative housing proposals are missing a few steps.  I’m talking about the election, and the proposals from different parties that are going around. Some of these are quite surprising to me. Case in point: the proposal to make every housing estate eligible for the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS). SERS is a very expensive programme, which involves not only buying back the flat, but also providing a replacement unit with a fresh lease; and this doesn’t count other forms of support and compensation. To stretch something intended for just five per cent of estates to 100 per cent would be enormous (not to mention kick resale prices into overdrive, since lease decay would become virtually meaningless). There are also a lot of policies that involve excluding land costs. I am aware of the argument that, because HDB really just pays SLA for the land, it might be fair to exclude this cost for buyers....