Blogger Leong Sze Hian asks if HDB’s “seriously unaffordable” price and waiting time contribute to Singapore’s low fertility rate

[TerrexLee]

Veteran blogger Leong Sze Hian on Wednesday (11 Aug) questioned if the “seriously unaffordable” price of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and the waiting time of 5.5 years to get an “affordable flat” will contribute to Singapore’s low fertility rate.

HDB has earlier announced that a total of 4,989 flats have been launched for sale across seven estates under the August 2021 Build-to-Order (BTO) exercise, with more than half located in mature estates.

The seven estates where the flats are launched include Hougang, Jurong East, Kallang Whampoa, Queenstown, and Tampines.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Mr Leong said that the average resale flats in Hougang are “seriously unaffordable” based on the International Housing Association’s ratings for the price to income ratio, noting that the flats costing 5.64 times of median household income.

The International Housing Association uses “median multiple” in its ratings — which is the median house price divided by the median household income — labelling a ratio above 5.1 as “severely unaffordable”, while a ratio between 4.1 to 5.0 is “seriously unaffordable”.

More at https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/20...te-to-singapores-low-fertility-rate/#comments

 

[laksaboy]

There's an easy way to boost fertility rate: just limit the number of female students in universities. Set a strict quota and high barriers to entry e.g. exceptional grades for admission of female students. Within a decade you will see the magic happen.

AWARE and her sisterhood will throw a hissy fit, you might lose some women's votes as the opposition grasps onto another wedge issue. But it's better than committing slow demographic suicide.

Of course, if you deliberately want to keep the fertility rate low to justify other agendas e.g. bringing in more immigrants, then a low fertility rate was never a problem to begin with. Outwardly, you might pretend that it is a problem and pretend to try and solve it e.g. build more daycare centres.