Singapore solved its housing crisis. It could hold lessons for Australia.
Singapore's home ownership rate has risen from 40% in the 1970s to 90% today. A leading economist thinks Australia could learn from its policies.
Six decades ago, just one in three Singaporeans owned their own home. Today that figure stands at 90%. At a time when low and middle income earners in many advanced economies are being priced out of the market, Singapore has become the textbook housing success story.
In an exclusive interview with Capital Brief during a recent visit to Sydney, one of the country's leading housing policy experts said there are lessons for Australia from Singapore's housing experiences. But Singapore Management University’s Sock-Yong Phang also cautions that anyone hoping for a silver bullet to solve the housing affordability crisis is likely to be disappointed.
“There are so many policy instruments that are at work to ensure affordable housing. So it is not as one simple solution, but a whole array of solutions that are applied over time,” she explained.
In the 1960s there was a concerted effort from Singapore's government to fix the problem and pre-empt major changes to the then-low density city. A strong public housing authority that became responsible for supplying property was set up.
