A lot of people will say its a pigeon hole. lease from HDB. I am not disputing any of thes.
However for people who cannot afford private property, what are the alternatives they have? Stay in Kampong huts? The alternative is only left to HDB.
Comparatively with private housing, its much cheaper. As for the status, a 99-year lease with HDB, i feel is no different with a 99-year leasehold private condo. Unless you buy a FH condo. But then a FH condo, is just that Freehold airspace one is buying.
If there is no HDB flats, those who can't afford private housing, what should they do? Any advise?
There's a real solution to this: reduce the inflated prices back to prices where it belongs. Because HDB is the sole supplier, and is not a free market, there should be curbs on the prices.
Therefore its like what the supply of utilities are usually in Australia and in many countries: because government is the sole supplier, hence there's a monopoly and hence there's no free market. Because of this, there's a price quota- a maximum price- that HDB can charge up to that point and nowhere more.
And in cases where one-room flats are needed to house senior citizens who are made homeless, these flats can be made free of charge for these senior citizens to stay in. They don't even have to pay rent for that. The only catch is that they have to apply but even so, if they apply, then automatically someone who is proficient in their mother tongue/dialect would be attached to them to help them fill up the forms.
In addition, the current HDB situation has curbed social mobility. This means that people have not been able to move up easily the social ladder as much as their foreign counterparts; instead they have been moving down the social ladder more easily because of many other reasons. Thus it has to be stopped.
Also, because of the excess influx of foreigners, whom some aren't as talented as the govt has advertised, HDB quotas on foreigners must either be marked up or maintain at high levels. Also, the overall intake of foreigners must be under a quota system too, to ensure that the labour market remains flexible, and to better give a firm foundation where locals can fight with foreigners in a more equal footing for jobs that are available.
Finally, there must be common sense regulation on HDB, as with all monopolies such as SMRT, SBS, and Singapore Power- to prevent abuse of power due to their monopoly powers. In many countries where the government has had to create government-linked companies or stat boards to supply these services, there are regulations and independent boards created to enforce this ruling. In addition the Judiciary is there for people as an avenue to keep these companies or stat board in check of any abuse of power in the law or on the commuters and customers.
Of course, to add a final important point: those who are appointed to the HDB must have some form of experience in housing, and have had a good resume in this area. This means there should be less political appointees. What we need is civil servants who are bipartisan and are gonna put their country first, and not their political parties and their self-interests first.
