IS428 2016-17 Term1 Assign1 Lim Zi Yu Jouta
Abstract
...
Problem and Motivation
As a fourth year student approaching graduation, my batchmates and I will be soon facing problems that most of us as students would usually not have to be concerned with. Most of us living in Singapore has had the luxury of staying with our parents without worries about housing rent, especially given the central location of our University, which facilities easy travel from most areas of Singapore. But as we step out into the working world and rely less on our parents’ support, we will soon find ourselves facing financial problems that our parents used to handle in place of us. As independent adults, most of us would take into consideration of moving out and having our own home, especially for those in committed relationships who wish to move in together having their own home.
The Singapore housing market has seen many changes since the beginnings of the Singaporean economy. Housing prices used to be low enough for the average Singaporean to own their own permanent residence, instead of opting to only rent a temporary property to keep a roof above their heads. Compared to the past where people can own properties easily, we now find ourselves unable to do that easily. The increase in housing prices compared to the increase in people’s salary in Singapore has led to people being unable to own their own private property. Hence, we seek to investigate the housing market in 2015 to assess the current situation. I will focus on the data for private properties instead of public housing such as HDB as public housing with subsidies would not portray an accurate reflection of the housing market for all individuals given the restrictions on HDB purchases resulting in ineligibility for some people. Data used will be for landed property such as the detached houses, semi-detached houses, terrace houses, and also non-landed property such as the apartments and condominiums. Executive condominiums are part of HDB property hence would be excluded from this analysis. With this, I hope to be able to come up with some policy recommendations on how to improve the situation for young adults like myself.
