Whenever the Workers' Party comes up with something you just know it's bound to be unrealistic. It's like they just keep churning out catchy slogans without understanding what it would take to make them a reality.
Last year they floated an idea that renting is not inferior to owning (which I happen to agree with to an extent, actually) and now they are calling for lowering the minimum age that singles would be able to buy an HDB apartment at from 35 to 28 years.
Now, setting aside the ideological arguments of whether younger singles should get the same access to public housing as couples, whether the policy should still be used to encourage marriage and so on, I'm wondering if folks at WP actually see what's going on in the construction business?
Hello?
Existing projects are already months, sometimes years behind schedule due to labour crunch and WP is suggesting putting even more pressure on construction?
Even before the pandemic the sector has been rather busy.
Lowering the age for HDB purchases would boost the demand for apartments and significantly increase the space needed, as individuals have greater minimum requirements than couples (on a per capita basis).
This means the output would have to increase – likely by at least a few thousand apartments per year, while the effective use of land would drop, as fewer people would live in the apartments built on it.
And since they have to be built by someone - and on time - Singapore would have to employ even more foreign workers than prior to Covid, increasing its needs for housing them in dormitories, providing them with basic, suitable living conditions.
Last I heard, Singaporeans haven't exactly exhibited lots of enthusiasm about the ever growing population of foreign workers in the city - so, how do we address that?
You simply can't have it all.
You can't have a growing population and promote single-living with state subsidies. You can't satisfy growing needs in a difficult labour market situation and to build those apartments you will need thousands of new immigrants. You can't preserve precious land of the tiny island by promoting ineffective use of space, if more people live alone. And once you take up a plot someone else is going to complain about losing precious greenery – like they did about Tengah or Dover.
It's easy to throw a slogan every now and then – it's very hard to make it a reality that most will approve of (particularly if they understand all of the consequences).
