WEBVTT - Singapore: Who Gets to Be Crazy Rich? 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:11.000 The Singapore of today, the one featured in Crazy Rich Asians, 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:15.280 with its luxury shopping malls, mansions and an airport complete 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:18.520 with a butterfly garden and a movie theater. That's a 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:23.439 relatively new phenomenon. Less than sixty years ago, Singapore was 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.960 newly independent and incredibly poor. Three quarters of the city's 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.720 population lived in overcrowded slums without electricity or proper sanitation. 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.800 The environment was extremely bad. Just to prove it to you, 0:00:37.800 --> 0:00:41.400 you could actually blindfold yourself and you know you're at 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:47.280 Singapore River. Why it could smell in Singapore River. That's 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:52.440 the Singapore we will indose states. That's Low Tiker, and 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:54.640 he's one of the main reasons the city is so 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:58.959 different today. People call him the architect of modern Singapore. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.760 Lou always had dreams of bettering his circumstances and those 0:01:03.800 --> 0:01:06.320 of the city he grew up in. At a young age, 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.440 he decided to study architecture so he could one day 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:13.440 help build up Singapore. His studies took him to Australia, 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:16.600 then Yale, and then to New York, where he worked 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.720 for the famed architect I. M. P. Then he got 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:24.119 the opportunity he had been preparing for In nineteen sixty nine, 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:27.160 Louis asked to come back to Singapore to join its 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:32.039 recently established Housing Development Board, or the HDB. Its goal 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.480 was to improve the city's housing conditions, and the Government 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:40.240 of Singapore decided, if we want to have a sustainable 0:01:40.280 --> 0:01:46.600 city compatible with all the other larger countries, we must 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:53.120 achieve excellence. And one of the signs of removing backwardness 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:58.640 is to remove the squats and house everybody in housing. 0:01:59.280 --> 0:02:01.560 But it was about more than just putting a decent 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.559 roof over people's heads. Singapore is a tiny island state 0:02:05.880 --> 0:02:10.680 with no agricultural industry. Singapore's key resource is its people, 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:14.400 so the government wanted to make Singapore somewhere people wanted 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.760 to live and stay, a place they were invested in. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:24.200 When you own your own properties, then you feel that 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:28.480 you have taken root in the society. And I also 0:02:28.760 --> 0:02:31.720 want to defend on the one to defend for the 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.200 survival of the country. On the hand is to help 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.679 build the economy of the country, and it went even 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.239 further than that. The government also felt that if it 0:02:42.360 --> 0:02:47.160 met people's basic needs housing, education, health care, then they'd 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:51.640 be able to thrive and in turn help Singapore's economy grow. 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:55.440 Within a few years, more than four hundred thousand people 0:02:55.560 --> 0:02:59.320 were living in h GB rentals. Singapore must be one 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:01.040 of the few places is in the world where a 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.400 statutory board satisfactorily completed everything is set out to do 0:03:04.560 --> 0:03:08.280 in its first five year plan. Then in nineteen sixty four, 0:03:08.440 --> 0:03:11.120 the government want a step further and began to allow 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:15.240 to encourage even lower middle income citizens to buy their 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:19.720 apartments at prices well below market rates. After five years, 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.960 they could sell them on the open market. That program 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:27.440 allowed many Singaporeans to make a lot of money. If 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.320 you bought an HDB apartment and sold it twenty five 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:33.960 years later, you'd have made your money back more than 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.760 ten times over. Today, Singaporeans expect to own their homes. 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:43.320 Almost of the population does, and eventually to sell them 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:47.280 at a profit. With one sweeping policy, Singapore had managed 0:03:47.320 --> 0:03:50.000 to ensure that the vast majority of its population had 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.600 a clean, modern place to live, and it had boosted 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.240 its economy. Singapore is now one of the richest countries 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.600 per capita in the world. Then the pandemic ushered in 0:04:01.720 --> 0:04:05.920 Singapore's worst ever recession, and median household income fell for 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:09.320 the first time in a decade, and while Singapore did 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:12.480 a pretty good job containing the virus, the pandemic brought 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.680 havoc to the city's carefully controlled real estate market. The 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:21.040 economy shrank, but home prices continued to rise. The average 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.760 private property now costs about fifteen times median household earnings. 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:29.320 That's higher than New York, London or San Francisco. I 0:04:29.440 --> 0:04:34.480 do worry that nowadays the public housing presses is really 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.400 a business venture then actually solving the housing need. I 0:04:39.480 --> 0:04:42.440 feel that the implication may not be very good for 0:04:43.040 --> 0:04:47.320 the economic development of Singapore. Jobless claims coming in, I 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.240 mean really jumping from the week before, pretty brutal, three 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.880 point to a million record six point six million Americans 0:04:55.120 --> 0:04:58.800 filed for unemployment last week. Indian working women, but the 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:03.000 worst impact did the pandemic. Prices of public housing. We 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.440 sail flats have hit an old time high in the 0:05:05.480 --> 0:05:08.680 first quarter of the year. Well now to the billionaire boom. 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:12.800 According to Bloomberg, super yacht charters are up over three 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:18.000 d and a billionaire was created every twenty six hours 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.360 during this pandemic. It is time for a wealth tax 0:05:21.680 --> 0:05:31.200 in America. Welcome back to the paycheck. I'm Rebecca Greenfield. 0:05:32.440 --> 0:05:36.080 By many accounts, Singapore is a pandemic and an inequality 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:40.479 success story. The country kept its COVID death rates relatively low, 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:45.120 and it's a rich country where many people live relatively comfortably. 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:48.839 But as we've learned this season, no place can fully 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:52.600 insulate itself from the effects of a pandemic, and Singapore 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:56.120 felt huge economic shocks that have hit its core affordable 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.279 housing super hard. Like in many big cities around the world, 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.800 demand for housing spiked during the pandemic. People were reevaluating 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:07.600 their life choices and the homes they were suddenly spending 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:10.960 way more time in, and they were enjoying record low 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:15.040 interest rates. As a result, Singapore is becoming more and 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:18.840 more stratified, and that's left its citizens starting to question 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:22.960 whether the city's wildly successful housing experiment is still working 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.120 for them. In the election, the ruling People's Action Party 0:06:27.440 --> 0:06:30.960 suffered its worst parliamentary results and more than sixty years 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:35.280 of unbroken rule. Observers blamed the outcome on younger voters, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.840 and they're growing fears about inequality. They worry they can't 0:06:39.880 --> 0:06:43.880 match the economic advancement their parents enjoyed. If the problem 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:48.400 remains unresolved. Singapore is at risk of losing its only resource, 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:53.000 It's people. My colleague Forest Moctar grew up in Singapore 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:55.560 and has worked as a reporter there for the past 0:06:55.760 --> 0:07:06.120 ten years. Here he is with the story. For most 0:07:06.200 --> 0:07:10.360 people in Singapore, home is an HTB apartment like the 0:07:10.480 --> 0:07:13.760 one I'm standing outside right now. I grew up in 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.720 one of these government built units, and my parents still 0:07:16.760 --> 0:07:19.920 live in one today. They're usually found in high rise 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.320 blocks on clean tree line streets, and the largest are 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.400 big enough for a family of five like mine. The 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:30.720 blocks look pretty unremarkable to anyone familiar with public housing, 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:35.480 but they have a couple of uniquely Singaporean features. Here 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.559 on the ground floor, there's an open sheltered space called 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:42.280 the Void Deck. It's a shady communal gathering place out 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:45.240 of the equatorial sunshine, and you will sometimes even see 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:50.559 weddings and funerals held here. Inside newer flats, you'll often 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.080 find a built in bomb shelter. That's the worst case 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.640 preparation measure, just in case the city is ever under attack, 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:02.080 but mostly they just yet used as extra storage space. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:06.040 I have friends who is there as walking wardrobes or 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.600 even makeshift wine salist and like almost everything in Singapore, 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:16.280 HDB flats have been meticulously planned. I was very and 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.480 viewers of the old cities in the West in Europe 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:25.720 particularly and also Manhattan. That's Liu Tiger again, the architect 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:30.000 of modern Singapore. So I wanted Singapore to be as 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:33.680 good as those and the second or strain as a planner, 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.520 so I want to make sure that Singapore functions well. 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:42.280 Liu and the HDB agency took into account everything from 0:08:42.320 --> 0:08:46.040 the facilities available in each neighborhood to even the amount 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.839 of light that was needed. When there's no no good lighting, 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:53.200 people are in a bad wood and therefore they tend 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.640 to fight more. So all this things have been built 0:08:56.720 --> 0:09:00.920 into the hardware from the get go. The founding leaders 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.800 of Singapore determined that housing and home ownership would be 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:08.160 one of the city state's core payless and for their 0:09:08.240 --> 0:09:11.880 kids it has been. But as prices keep going up, 0:09:12.320 --> 0:09:15.920 not everyone is convinced the government's plan is still working 0:09:16.040 --> 0:09:19.440 for everyone. Obviously, people need a place to live, right, 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.880 they desire good places, high quality places to live, but 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:28.680 they should focus on it as a good, not an asset. 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.840 That's Christopher g He's a senior researcher at a Singapore 0:09:32.920 --> 0:09:36.400 think tank called the Institute of Policy Studies has been 0:09:36.480 --> 0:09:39.440 looking at the city's approach to housing for the last decade. 0:09:40.040 --> 0:09:43.760 If you encourage that idea that it is an asset 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:48.120 and people can speculate to grow wealthy, then it kind 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.200 almost ends up in as your some game. But if 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.960 people think a plant, this is a good right, then 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:56.960 we do get good out of it. It's for your consumption. 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.400 You should buy it, utilize it for what it is 0:10:02.280 --> 0:10:05.120 worth to you, not to think that, okay, you can 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.160 flog it onto somebody else at a higher price. What 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.679 he's saying is that increasing property prices are a zero 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:15.400 sum game because it would be buyas lose out, even 0:10:15.520 --> 0:10:19.760 as existing homeowners see their wealth grow. In other words, 0:10:20.080 --> 0:10:24.280 the system can lead to inequality, and Singapore's government worries 0:10:24.320 --> 0:10:28.640 about inequality, which can have a corrosive effect on social 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:33.880 cohesion and can even drive social unrest. Inequality is an 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:38.640 issue that affects people's trust in each other. If there 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:43.120 is a big difference in someone's lived experience, someone's opportunities, 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.959 it's harder for you to understand and put yourself into 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:49.719 the position of the other. It also strikes into the 0:10:49.800 --> 0:10:53.760 social compact. It strikes against the Singapole pledge right. We 0:10:53.880 --> 0:10:58.520 pledge ourselves to developer adjusting equal society, and I think 0:10:58.720 --> 0:11:17.640 if we don't hold that, then there's something problematic. Singapore's 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:21.160 reaches residents wouldn't blink at sucking out millions for a 0:11:21.200 --> 0:11:26.600 new pad, but soaring property prices, even for government built apartments, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.560 have become a real concern for many ordinary people. Even 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:34.520 a relatively simple four bedroom public unit can go for 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:38.160 more than four hundred thousand Singapore dollars, which is about 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:42.000 two D nine U S dollars. An apartment in a 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:45.840 prime location can fetch more than three times that amount, 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:50.240 and in Singapore's carefully planned housing market, things are even 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:54.400 more complicated. For younger would be biased under thirty five 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:59.079 don't qualify for subsidized HDB apartments known as built to 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.920 order units or b t o s unless they are married. 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.640 Abishak Rabbi Christian is one of those ordinary Singaportians who's 0:12:07.720 --> 0:12:11.320 worried by rising prices. I think it's a huge problem 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:14.839 the affordability. It's public housing, after all, but it doesn't 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:17.559 match up to the price. What you're paying for it's 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.000 not the paying field, but when public housing is meant 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:23.040 to be more accessible to the public, so affordability is 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.880 definitely a huge issue for me personally. Other Shack is 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.800 thirty three years old, a young professional who doesn't yet 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.600 have a family to worry about. It's a long way 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.079 from the bottom of singapore social economic ladder. Even so, 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:40.360 his hopes of buying a property as an investment are dimming. 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:43.920 We've all grown up with their mindset. But to me, 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.360 I think exchanged over time after seeing what's happened, especially 0:12:47.400 --> 0:12:51.040 with the increased prices of public housing, which I essentially 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.880 meant for the public, but the prices have gone up 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.440 because you're allowed to flip it around. Obviously, property can 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:01.040 be an asset, but for some one whose middle income 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:04.120 or lower mill income, I don't think it's a viable 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:08.079 means of profity. Abishay is well aware of the benefits 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.559 that the country has already seen as a result of 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:14.079 these policies, but he's also resigned to the fact that 0:13:14.280 --> 0:13:18.360 he's unlikely to experience the same social uplift as previous 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:22.559 generations have enjoyed. At that point. The seventies and eighties 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:26.480 decisions will meet with that generation in mind and how 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:29.960 to move them forward. And obviously it's helped singapore development 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.640 and growth over the last forty years has been phenomenal, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:35.400 so I don't think there's resentment to it. But right 0:13:35.480 --> 0:13:39.120 now the middle incomes getting squashed because it's very difficult 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.000 to break out of that cycle. The pandemic showed Abish 0:13:42.320 --> 0:13:45.319 just how deep the divide between rich and poor can be. 0:13:46.200 --> 0:13:49.120 For him, the real question is not just how Singapore 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:53.319 managers is housing supply, it's whether everyday people still have 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:58.199 the opportunity to thrive. I questioned the level of meritocracy. 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:01.599 I've always questioned it, but because obviously we're living in 0:14:01.600 --> 0:14:05.240 the real world where connections, knowing people having strong networks, 0:14:05.360 --> 0:14:09.800 having come from different backgrounds, or having your background might 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.199 determine where you're gonna end up. So I don't personally 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.439 believe that Singapore is society that's based completely on meritocracy. 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.760 For me, personally, housing is I want to build a 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.640 home for myself and a place where I can come 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:26.640 back to and I feel a sense of belonging, So 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:30.720 not only the actual property itself, but the surroundings as well. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:34.160 And that's a bit idealistic. On my part, but it 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:35.760 has to be a place that means something to me, 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.600 like carb shaped. Julian too, is in her early thirties 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.200 with the career and no family yet. COVID was one 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:46.720 of the forces that prompted her to think about buying 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:51.080 her own home. With the pandemic, it was a catalyst 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:53.120 for a lot of people like myself to move out 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.640 of their parental homes, and from there actually realized that 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.440 I really enjoy living on my own. I really wanted 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:03.760 to have a place that I could do it myself 0:15:03.920 --> 0:15:06.960 and really call a home of my own, rather than 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.760 her sprinting. Even though she got some help from her 0:15:09.800 --> 0:15:14.080 parents to make the purchase, surging prices were still a consideration. 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.000 If I wasn't fortunate enough to her parents who were 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:19.240 able to help me, I would have to wait until 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.960 a thirty five to buy an HDB and that's just 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:26.120 just as really unfortunate, right. She's still confident that she 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:29.920 will make a profit on her purchase eventually, though a 0:15:30.040 --> 0:15:33.840 smaller one than previous generations could have expected. So my 0:15:33.960 --> 0:15:39.200 parents they were able to nine x their original investment 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:43.200 in the house. My sister about ten eleven years ago, 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:46.280 she was able to double it, and I'm seeing that 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:49.960 decrease over time. For sure. Personally, I would see it 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.120 as a home and a long term assat. I have 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.360 a couple of friends who have bought b t O 0:15:55.560 --> 0:15:57.600 s and they're hoping to flip it up after five 0:15:57.680 --> 0:16:00.760 to six years. I'm not looking to do that sort 0:16:00.760 --> 0:16:03.160 of flipping, not at least for the next eight to 0:16:03.320 --> 0:16:06.240 ten years. I think it's all about the horizon that 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:08.800 you have in mind. I do think that it will 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.360 so be profitable and houses will only continue to go 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.720 up in price. Joline's views aren't unusual. As long as 0:16:16.800 --> 0:16:21.359 housing behaves like an investment asset, it's all but inevitable 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:24.120 that many people will continue to treat it like one. 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.640 But whether you see housing as an investment like Joline 0:16:29.120 --> 0:16:32.960 or as more of a consumer good like Abishaik, affordability 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:36.640 is an issue that's hard to ignore. It's an issue 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:40.200 I'm very familiar with myself. I'm thirty three years old, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.720 and in twenty twenty I did start thinking about purchasing 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:49.160 my first property. To my surprise, prices skyrocketed despite the 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:53.560 pandemic and the recession. I abandoned my plans, and I 0:16:53.680 --> 0:16:57.440 wonder now whether I missed the boat. When my parents 0:16:57.480 --> 0:16:59.880 sold our five bed fled in two thousand and one, 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:02.720 we moved into a smaller unit, and they made a 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:05.760 big enough profit to buy the latest Nissan and to 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.400 top up their savings account too. I know that kind 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.160 of return is a way out of reach for me now. 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:16.320 I get asked every now and then do I plan 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.560 to buy an apartment. I'm too young to get an 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.920 HDB as an unmarried person, and I'm not going to 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.560 get married just so I can buy one. Finding a 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:31.800 girlfriend is a long enough process. Rising housing prices also 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:35.040 scare me. Let's say, if my future wife wants to 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:37.879 buy a home, maybe we'll do it. If I'm on 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.000 my own, I might stick with renting and put my 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:50.720 capital into stocks, cryptocurrency or are the investments. When I 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.800 reached out to the National Development Ministry to comment for 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:58.159 this story, a spokesperson said that HTB flats are primarily 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:00.800 intended as a home for their owners to live in, 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.119 as well as being a good store value for the 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:09.000 owner's retirement. That's in line with the ruling party's message 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:13.520 about the property market. Since it faced unhappy voters during 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:17.000 the first year of the pandemic well. The ruling People's 0:18:17.000 --> 0:18:22.000 Action Party has won every election since independence, and opposition 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:25.440 politicians say the city's election rules make it very hard 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.800 for anyone else to win. The government is still very 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:33.480 sensitive to signs that its popularity is slipping. About six 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.119 months ago, it rolled out title loan limits and additional 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.080 property taxes on second homes, the latest of several rounds 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.200 of measures designed to cool house prices. It also announced 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.880 it will increase the supply of housing, but it may 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.640 well take more than these measures to change singaporeans attitudes 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:56.040 to real estate. Paul Tumbaya, who is chairman of the 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.680 opposition Singapore Democratic Party, says it's high time property was 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:04.200 handled more like a consumer good. Again, housing does not 0:19:04.359 --> 0:19:07.679 actually enable anybody to move up the social letter unless 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:11.040 you have a rich father or mother. The vast majority 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:13.280 of Singapore is more than eight percent of them own 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.520 only a single property, the one in which they live. 0:19:16.200 --> 0:19:18.679 So sure, if the value of this property rises, they 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:21.520 could be tremendously wealthy if they sell the property, But 0:19:21.560 --> 0:19:24.080 then where are they going to live? The original goals 0:19:24.119 --> 0:19:27.720 of public housing in Singapore were very good and very noble. 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.600 The idea is that you provide a safe roof over 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:34.440 people's head, You provide them with electricity, with clean water, 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.760 and so they can use their savings for other things, 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.000 for other far more productive investments. So I think that's 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.680 where housing needs to go back to to provide for 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:45.560 a roof over the heads of the bulk of the 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:49.840 population is calling for an overhaul of the city's housing model. 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:52.760 In the early days, you could only sell your HDB 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:55.960 flat back to the HDB and then the government will 0:19:56.000 --> 0:19:59.640 put it into the general pool of property that's available 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:01.920 and then somebody could buy it after that. This would 0:20:01.960 --> 0:20:03.960 be too drastic a step to put in it one 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:07.240 fell swoop. So we've suggested that a certain portion of 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.040 the housing stopped being non open market, so there would 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:13.040 be open market flights which could be sold on the 0:20:13.160 --> 0:20:15.840 open market, and the non open market flights which would 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.440 have to go back to the HDB. And it's it's 0:20:19.480 --> 0:20:21.520 not going to be easy and people are going to 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:23.800 have to come to terms with the idea of flipping 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:27.480 property is not the solution, but I think that's more realistic. 0:20:27.880 --> 0:20:31.640 Paul's ideas aren't the only ones in the mix right now. Well, 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:36.520 Singapore grapples with keeping housing affordable. Some observers even suggest 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.200 Singapore should move away from its home ownership model and 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.159 instead encourage renting, which is more common in places like 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:48.280 Germany or Japan. The pandemic force people around the world 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.080 to think hard about how and where they were living. 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.680 In Singapore, where home ownership has become a cornerstone of 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:59.720 national identity and a key indicator of well being. It 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.920 wrought simmering concerns about wealth disparity to the foe for 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.000 young people, in particular, calls for housing to be treated 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.520 as a good and not an investment asset. Maybe a 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:16.240 signal that Singapore's original housing experiment is getting closer to 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:20.119 having run its course. It's the success story that our 0:21:20.160 --> 0:21:25.080 parents generation have been able to use to upgrade themselves. 0:21:25.600 --> 0:21:28.280 So it's hard and for the government to now do 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:30.600 a reverse you turn and say that you know, we're 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:32.680 going to shift to a different model, it would be 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:36.480 very difficult and perhaps politically unpopular. People are going to 0:21:36.960 --> 0:21:40.680 be upset, right, but I think they can get over it. 0:21:40.960 --> 0:21:42.880 They can't be their parents. I don't think they want 0:21:42.880 --> 0:21:54.399 to be their parents. Singapore shows that a country can 0:21:54.520 --> 0:21:58.479 drastically change its economic fortunes. It can also just as 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:03.000 easily backslide. It takes the right mix of policies, interventions, 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:08.159 and resources, but poverty and inequality are not foregone conclusions. 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:13.159 Next week, on our final episode of this season of 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:17.000 The Paycheck, we had to a utopia of economic equality 0:22:17.480 --> 0:22:19.520 to see if there are lessons to be learned for 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.159 the rest of the world. The objective of the cooperative 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:27.320 is not to produce rich people, is to produce rich societies. 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:29.480 At the end of the day, even if you are 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:32.639 not rich, if you belong to a rich society, you 0:22:32.680 --> 0:22:35.280 will be happy. Thanks for listening to The Paycheck. This 0:22:35.440 --> 0:22:40.000 episode originally said that Singapore has no manufacturing sector. We've 0:22:40.040 --> 0:22:43.399 corrected the error as the category now accounts for of 0:22:43.520 --> 0:22:46.440 its GDP. If you like our show, please head on 0:22:46.520 --> 0:22:49.200 over to Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts 0:22:49.520 --> 0:22:53.040 to rate, review and subscribe. This episode was hosted by 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:57.000 Me Rebecca Greenfield and reported by Forest mock Tar. It 0:22:57.119 --> 0:23:00.119 was edited by Ellis McDonald and Janet Paskin, with help 0:23:00.160 --> 0:23:04.080 from Francesca Levi, Racksheta Soluja and me. We also had 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.720 editing help from Daniel Balby, Shelley Banjo, Christin B. Brown, 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:12.000 Gilda to Carly, Nicole Flato, and Kai Schultz. This episode 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:14.720 was produced by Gilda to Carly and sound engineered by 0:23:14.800 --> 0:23:19.080 Matt kim Our. Original music is by Leo Sidron. Special 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:22.760 thanks to Magnus Hendrickson, We Get Into Kayper, Margaret Sutherland, 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:26.680 and Stacy Wong. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's Head of Podcasts. 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:27.880 See you next week.