Organizer: The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science

Description:

The Housing and Development Board (HDB) of Singapore is effectively the monopoly provider of housing for all but the wealthiest 10-15 percent of Singaporeans who can afford housing in the private sector. Colloquially, the HDB flat is commonly referred as ‘government housing’; the HDB’s achievement is thus equated with the success of the long-governing People’s Action Party government. This also means that issues in public housing provision often translate or transform into political issues for the government. This presentation will focus on a set of issues that have emerged from the sale and ownership of 99-year lease on public housing unit, which permits capital gains or profit to be made by public housing residents, through the buy-and-sell cycle of the lease.

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