the bay area will be more in line with private home prices in sg, as good-sized single family homes (sg's definition of bungalow) with its own lot and no shared walls are going for usd3m to usd4m in sf. townhomes in sf are going for usd1.5m while 2-bedroom condos can easily sell for usd1m.
while i agree that in sf, owners have a grant deed and truly own their homes and in sg, hdb flat "owners" don't legally own their homes as tenants lease them from the hdb, sinkies should consider themselves lucky for having affordable flats to live in compared to other world class cities with jobs, vibrance and increasing demands for housing: e.g. hk, london, tokyo, sf, etc.
whether they legally own their flats is not the issue, but having the long term provisions in place by a gov to placate private owners of land via the lta and repurposing the land for public housing at affordable prices is. unlike commie regimes in north korea or cuba, sg cannot give away the farm for free, and charging nominal prices below market rates is the right thing to do. even if it's a long term lease at 99 years, there's value and equity over the course of several decades at least. a sinkie hdb-lessee retiree going to nz to buy a real home at $400k can easily liquidate and make $400k from the "sale" of his hdb flat, for example. where else in the world can you find a lessee making so much money from "reselling" his 99-year lease?
that is basically the essence of what sam is saying. his logic is not twisted.
