OF ALL the maxims that Singaporeans hold to be true, a key one is that condominium units here have become less affordable over the years, forcing their children and grandchildren to inhabit smaller and smaller spaces, farther and farther away in the suburbs.
So, when a Straits Times report last month cited an economist and a property consultant stating separately that the affordability of private homes has increased since the property boom in 1996, some readers were up in arms.
The duo used different formulas but their conclusions were the same: Singaporeans’ wealth had grown more than private home prices in the last decade, making homes more ‘affordable’ – at least in the ways they each defined the term.
For many readers, the conclusion was inexplicable and unacceptable.
The property market had breached unprecedented levels in 2007, and it hardly took a breather during the recession before powering ahead again this year. Incomes, they felt, could not possibly have risen more quickly than home prices.
Mr Ng Kok Lim, a polytechnic academic staff member, was among those who wrote to The Straits Times’ Forum page disagreeing with the conclusion. Continue reading
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