Re: 1 Million FTs in S'pore. We Must Make Them Leave. Here Is How. Co-operate S'porea
That is not the reason. Not sure who told you this.
The Replacement rate is certainly a concern and in particular that of the Chinese Singaporeans. This govt is comfortable with race ratio from the time of independence. Attempts to get Malaysian Chinese via the Asean and local scholarships failed to get them to convert. A second attempt was made to get HKongers and that too failed. Now its the PRC market. That only addresses the repalcement rate for chinese.
The real reason was the effect of foreigners on the economy. Common sense will tell you that when there are more people, the economy with everything holding, will grow. They got their first taste in the early 90s when HDB prices shot thru the roof with a Maisonette going for $740K. It was fueled by FTs when resale rules were relaxed.
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I don't think the above is accurate. The govt. is totally uncomfortable with the race ratios, and if it were up to them, there would be 90% Chinese, 10% Indians and 0% Malays. There were never any attempts to get malaysian chinese to come here on a permanent basis. In fact, they were discouraged and considered unreliable and not anti-malay enough. This was a very sore point with the Malaysian chinese, especially in the 1970s when many wanted to move to singapore permanently due to racial tensions but were denied by the govt. The recruitment of HK in 1990s played on their fear of a communist takeover in HK, and the PAP knew that they were not serious and only using S'pore as a stepping stone. The replacement rate would have been much lower if the PAP had simply concentrated on retaining its native born Chinese populace. 100,000s have emigrated to Australia, Britain, US, and Canada. There is not one singaporean who does not have a friend or relative in one of these countries. These people left because they know the PAP has fucked it up. If all singaporeans did not leave their homeland, we would not have this problem.
With regards to the price of HDB Maisonnette. U are wrong. All land and property prices in Singapore is controlled by the PAP. At that time, the HDB were releasing units at inflated prices, plus add to that rampant speculation, and you have the prices being what they are. FTs by and large have an overblown effect on HDB prices. If your theory is true, than given the large influx of FTs in the last few years, u should have seen HDB prices shot thru the roof. Instead, u have 40,000 unsold units as recent as last year. FTs are classified into the following categories:
Privileged FTs- Rich Indons, FTs that are working high salary jobs, etc. They buy high end private condos, not HDB flats.
Lower ranked FTs- Working in menial jobs or IT jobs, with salaries of up to $2000 per month. 4 or 5 of them kongsi together and rent one HDB flat. I have seen 1 family per room in the flats. They DO NO BUY because they know they will return back to their village.
Rare FTS- who actually move their families here and make singapore their new homes. Yes, they buy flats, but they are so few of them and their effects on HDB prices are negligible.