Why are S'poreans not getting much bang from our buck? Our land scarcity drives up the cost of real estate, making both the rental and purchase of a home extremely expensive; this is the biggest component of a household's expenditure. To manage traffic congestion, car ownership is too expensive for up to 92% of residents here. A small country like S'pore also relies heavily on imports for many goods, which drives up prices owing to shipping and logistics costs.