It is a million-dollar question on whether our children can afford to have a roof over their heads in the future.
At the forum on Saturday, Prof Paul Tambyah echoed the sentiments of prominent economists and other opposition members that Singapore can afford to dip into our reserves to support the social and societal expenditures. He said that using the reserves is an alternative to increasing the GST. Presently, it is purported that some home buyers who have bought HDB flats at superhigh prices are in negative equity after paying off interests for their loans and if they have bought resale flats that have shorter leases left on their properties, the repayment rates are much higher, which then erodes their savings even more. There is a growing concern that this bunch of buyers will have close to nothing left in their twilight years.
Wendy Low of PSP said, “at this rate the median income household would struggle to service loan repayments. The increase in GST coupled with the inflationary environment would make it even harder for Singaporeans to make ends meet.“The property prices have kept up and this is even though there has been manpower flight during the pandemic. Defying the odds, the property market has seen a significant increase in rental rates baffling analysts in Singapore.