Sunday, August 14, 2011

Only In 2015

At the recent Singapore General Election (GE), the ruling People's Action Party's (PAP) suffered a loss of votes of up to 6%. The PAP's overall vote share fell from 66.6% in the 2006 GE to 60.1% cent this year.

Months after the GE, its good news/bad news time for the people of Singapore.

The PAP seems to be focusing on where they went wrong and are taking steps to rectify the problem areas. Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said as much when he said that the reason for the PAP’s loss of votes was due to rising home prices, which were pushed too high by too many new permanent residents and citizens buying properties. He was right. High housing prices was one of the reasons for the PAP’s loss of votes.

That’s the good news; the bad news is that Singaporeans should not hold their breath for the solutions. According to Mr. Lee, the government has done a revamp and the Housing & Development Board (HDB) has promised that supply will meet demand within 4 years. 4 years? That’s in 2015!

You mean Singaporeans has to wait till 2015 before prices start coming down? Mind you, it isn’t housing prices being affordable in 2015 but just coming down! More importantly if supply will only meet demand in 2015, doesn’t that mean housing prices will continue to rise from now till 2015 and will only come down then?

Would Singaporeans be willing to withstand 4 years of rising housing prices? Yup, I don’t think so either.

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