Affordability

Singapore is often proud and tend to reference their performance to external international benchmark. Everything goes well if is in our favor. What if is not so clear.

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

Is being the best of the worst good enough for us ?

"Singapore had a Median Multiple of 5.1, for a severely
unaffordable rating. Other severely unaffordable geographies included Australia (6.3), New Zealand (8.0), and
Hong Kong (14.9)."

"Singapore's well-designed regulatory
structure, with its emphasis on sufficient supply and affordability is capable of restoring housing affordability."

"With severely unaffordable housing, Singapore has not been as successful as might have been hoped. In some
years insufficient supply was produced, which resulted in the now elevated costs. But, by comparison to
metropolitan areas that have followed the British urban containment model, Singapore's results have been
stellar. Housing affordability has virtually spiraled out of control in places like Hong Kong, Vancouver, San
Francisco, San Jose, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and London, reaching levels of 7.0 to nearly 15.0. "

Food for thoughts.

Cory

Hmmm..... isn't the report saying the Singapore has been stellar in keeping control compared to other metros ?

It has not been successful in controlling the problem in full which is what everyone wants, but compared to other metros they are doing a better job then them based on the results.

I think this questions about home affordability is a non-issue?

I remembered a HK person in the TV interview about SGP BTO flat and she says that in HK, she can only buy a toilet with the amount of $$$???



Love Compassion

For 2013, Singapore median household income was S$ 7,872 per month.

(23-04-2014, 04:01 PM)egghead Wrote: For 2013, Singapore median household income was S$ 7,872 per month.

Assume buyer is below 40 years old:



Love Compassion

I think the report is a bit mis-leading. Singapore is a country as well as a city, but it is being compare with other countries. Singapore should be compared with Landon instead of UK, New York instead of US.The same problem is with Hong Kong also.

It is naturally as a major economic center, the housing price is higher compare with less important cities within the country. If you look at the chart at page 22 with a list of cities. Other than Tokyo and Osaka (not sure how it happened), those city with "more affortable" housing are mainly ties 2 cities in the country.

The only way to explain the ultra high house ownership in Singapore is that the house in Singapore is more affortable than most of other major cities.

(23-04-2014, 08:44 PM)chialc Wrote:

(23-04-2014, 04:01 PM)egghead Wrote: For 2013, Singapore median household income was S$ 7,872 per month.

Assume buyer is below 40 years old:



Love Compassion

Hi chialc,

I think you should add the cost of maintaining the car too, which is about $1k. The car loan should be about $1100, assuming 60k loan and 2.8% int. Then the math works out to be only $625k for the max price of the property!

What can I get with $625k?

(23-04-2014, 11:02 PM)liphuang Wrote: I think the report is a bit mis-leading. Singapore is a country as well as a city, but it is being compare with other countries. Singapore should be compared with Landon instead of UK, New York instead of US.The same problem is with Hong Kong also.

It is naturally as a major economic center, the housing price is higher compare with less important cities within the country. If you look at the chart at page 22 with a list of cities. Other than Tokyo and Osaka (not sure how it happened), those city with "more affortable" housing are mainly ties 2 cities in the country.

The only way to explain the ultra high house ownership in Singapore is that the house in Singapore is more affortable than most of other major cities.

The only way to explain the ultra high ownership in Singapore is the success of HDB public housing scheme when public housing in any other country is deemed a "dirty" word.

I hope HDB continues on its intended mission and not on a "corporate" mission.

Hi liphuang,

I think you are mistaken, if you read the article properly, you will realize they are not comparing against countries but against metro cities.

(23-04-2014, 11:02 PM)liphuang Wrote: I think the report is a bit mis-leading. Singapore is a country as well as a city, but it is being compare with other countries. Singapore should be compared with Landon instead of UK, New York instead of US.The same problem is with Hong Kong also.

It is naturally as a major economic center, the housing price is higher compare with less important cities within the country. If you look at the chart at page 22 with a list of cities. Other than Tokyo and Osaka (not sure how it happened), those city with "more affortable" housing are mainly ties 2 cities in the country.

The only way to explain the ultra high house ownership in Singapore is that the house in Singapore is more affortable than most of other major cities.

Pardon me if I was slow, I just learnt that for DSR includes credit card debt which is in my view absurd as some people uses e credit card for consumption and make full payments regularly. Even some have to use their credit cards for business travel before getting a expense claim from the company. But if those are taken into account for DSR, those who uses credit card as consumption can almost not buy any property.