HOUSING POLICIES IN SINGAPORE: EVALUATION OF RECENT PROPOSALS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM

Sock-Yong Phang, David Lee, Alan Cheong, Kok-Fai Phoon and Karol Wee
Additional contact information
David Lee: Singapore Management University, Singapore
Alan Cheong: Savills Singapore, Singapore
Kok-Fai Phoon: Singapore Management University, Singapore
Karol Wee: Singapore Management University, Singapore

The Singapore Economic Review (SER), 2014, vol. 59, issue 03, 1-14

Abstract: The Singapore housing market is unusual in its high homeownership rate, the dominance of HDB housing, and the extensive intervention of the government in regulating housing supply and demand in both the HDB and private housing sectors. Recent rapid population increases in a low interest rate and high global liquidity environment has resulted in accelerated house prices increases in Singapore. Earlier this year, the government launched "Our Singapore Conversation" of which discussion on housing policies constitutes one major component. This "conversation" comes in the wake of several consecutive rounds of measures to stabilize housing prices using various instruments. This paper evaluates the main policy changes proposed and makes recommendations for housing market reforms: (i) the government need to clarify goals of housing policies and make available more detailed data on the foreign component of our population for better analysis of housing markets; (ii) the housing supply regime should target an overall effective vacancy rate that encompasses both the Housing and Development Board (HDB) and private sector; (iii) policy makers need to monitor carefully excess demand indicators for housing in addition to housing affordability indicators over the entire spectrum of incomes and household types; (iv) housing REITs should be established to provide an alternative investment option as well as to develop an efficient and affordable rental sector; and (v) in addition to macroprudential measures, owner-occupancy requirements and fiscal measures such as stamp duties and property taxes could be further utilized to reduce the foreign demand for Singapore housing and real estate.

Keywords: Singapore; Housing Policies; Housing Reform; HDB; REITs; JEL Classification: R21; JEL Classification: R31; JEL Classification: R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0217590814500258
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wsi:serxxx:v:59:y:2014:i:03:n:s0217590814500258

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from

DOI: 10.1142/S0217590814500258

Access Statistics for this article

The Singapore Economic Review (SER) is currently edited by Euston Quah

More articles in The Singapore Economic Review (SER) from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Tai Tone Lim ().