Weblog -- Economics & Business -- Saturday, 26 January 2002
Saturday, 26 January 2002 -- Singapore's Cost of Living & "Resale" Public Housing Market
Reference / Source: Adapted from TNP ( i.e., The New Paper ), 26 Jan 2002
Both the "cost of living" -- sometimes indicated somewhat inadequately by the CPI, or consumer-price index -- and the so-called "resale" market in "public housing" ( a.k.a. "HDB flats", where HDB stands for "Housing and Development Board" -- which, come to think of it, is a weird name for a "statutory board" charged with the provision of public housing to the thoroughly brained-washed, rather than unwashed, masses in Singapore ) are of perennial interest in Singapore ... as it may be elsewhere, of course, but then who's keeping track? ( Probably, only the control freaks and power junkies are doing it! )
Anyway, a "recent" [ as in January 2002 ] comparative study of the cost of living worldwide, conducted by the Intelligence Unit of The Economist, found that Singapore held the ninth costliest spot in the world.
In mid-2001, Singapore was the seventh costliest place, out of 134 major cities in 86 countries.
Thus, it would appear that Singapore is now [ as in January 2002 ] a less expensive place to live in.
Meanwhile, one sector of public housing in Singapore now [ in January 2002 ] cost less, following the trend towards a softening property market.
- In the secondary public housing market (resale market), the prices of resale HDB flats -- such flats were previously
built by the HDB (or Housing and Development Board, a statutory board), and sold by the HDB directly to residents,
and which can, after a suitable qualifying period, subsequently be sold among residents -- had dropped by 8% in Year 2001,
"hitting a six-year low after having fallen for 6 consecutive quarters" in 2001.
- Average valuations of HDB flats for the Oct-Dec 2001 quarter plummetted between 5%-7%, especially for the larger flats.
- The number of resale transactions for the Oct-Dec 2001 quarter plunged by 11.8%. Yet, the number of such resale
transactions for the entire Year 2001 rose by 5.2% compared to the Year 2000.