Singapore’s PAP faces housing affordability reckoning in run-up to high-stakes election

“The angst, anxiety and anger that we are witnessing will be further stoked when the general election comes around,” said Eugene Tan, a law professor from the Singapore Management University.

“It will be part of the narrative that Singapore has become less egalitarian, more expensive, increasingly elitist.”

However, Wong struck a reassuring tone, insisting that the backlog of new housing inventory will be cleared by early next year and stressing that the government’s ambition to launch 100,000 new flats between 2021 and 2025 remains on track – a goal he believes has already started to stabilise the property market.

“Our current house price-to-income ratios are significantly lower than most cities in the world like London, Sydney and Hong Kong, but there’s still work to be done,” he said.

In an effort to rein in runaway housing costs, Singapore’s government has implemented a raft of changes since 2020, including increases to stamp duties on residential properties and the introduction of a prime-location public housing model that claws back subsidies when owners sell their centrally-located flats.

This feverish demand, exacerbated by pandemic-induced construction delays, has only heightened anxieties among Singaporeans fearful of being priced out of the property market – especially against the backdrop of broader cost-of-living pressures.

“As Singaporeans feel increasingly priced out of the property market due to the disproportionate media attention paid to outlier property prices, cooling measures tend to be perceived as too little, too late,” said Nydia Ngiow, managing director for Singapore at strategic advisory firm BowerGroupAsia.

Housing affordability has emerged as an existential challenge for the ruling People’s Action