HOUSING IN 1979 “VERY DIFFERENT” FROM 2025: DESMOND LEE
In reply, Mr Lee said Singapore in 1979 was “very unique” from Singapore now.
Initially, only 4 per share of each group in 1979 went to school, compared to more than 40 per share today.
Also, just 9 per cent of each group went to VITB therefore, than around 60 per share who go to colleges and ITEs now.
” The vast majority of each batch now go to school, poly and ITE, compared to merely around 13 per share going to school and VITB again in 1979″, said the chancellor.
” Mr Leong was comparing housing affordability for a small party in 1979 with cover value for the vast majority of Singaporeans today”, he added.
” He even did not present the pricing image for the majority of Singaporeans again in 1979 who were less well educated, less experienced and earned much less in those first days of Singapore”.
In 1979, just 68 per cent of the people lived in HDBs, with 62 per share owning their condos. Today, more than 80 per cent of Singaporeans live in HDBs, and more than 90 per share are people.
Last year, more than eight in 10 first-timer communities who collected the secrets to their BTO cottages and selling flats “used little to no income” to support their monthly loan instalments, said Mr Lee.
Second, the type of condos built in 1979 were” simple, practical houses in estates with some amenities and very minimal transfer links”.
Condos now come with “modern features and much better carry connection” that offer residents a higher standard of living, the secretary said.
Third, Mr Lee said the housing industry in 1979 was “very unique” as there was “almost no sale industry to talk of”.
In the ‘ 60s, clients had to “return the level to HDB at a total that was less than what they originally paid for”. A “very fundamental resale marketplace with strict conditions and minimal financing” emerged in the 1970s, but there was “limited ability for appreciation”, said the chancellor.
The resale market only started to mature in the ‘ 80s and ‘ 90s after changes in the resale and mortgage financing policies.
” Today, our HDB flats are both a home and also a store of value for Singaporeans, which they can monetise in their older years for retirement by selling on the open market, renting out a room or a flat, or through our lease buyback scheme, and so on”, Mr Lee said.