Doing housing right

Just got back from spending the Christmas holidays with my son and his family in Singapore.

- BOO CHANCO

Every time I visit this remarkable city state, their public housing program never ceases to amaze me. Yes, they have very expensive condo developments too, but apparently, no Singaporean is left homeless. And Singapore's public housing developments are clean, well built, well planned and with amenities for residents to have a life.

An academic in our Viber Group who lived in Singapore for many years observed that "the Singapore model works because 1) people have jobs; 2) there is mandatory savings scheme to pay for downpayment and loan repayment; 3) it is a public housing scheme and government controls cost of land and construction; the government being the land owner and monopsony buyer; 4) credit is made affordable (less than two percent); 5) government caps loan servicing to max 30 percent of household income; 6) housing is a political public good.

"More generally, the ruling party (PAP) has tied its fortunes to the provision of affordable, high-quality public goods - education, healthcare, transport, public safety, competent civil service and zero tolerance for corruption. PAP is one of the longest reigning political parties in the world."

All those factors make a difference. Back here, our public officials think of public housing more in terms of constructing cheap housing units that potential beneficiaries often reject. Look at those ugly public housing buildings along the railroad tracks near the Paco station on the South Superhighway. Terrible eyesores. I grew up in the Paco-Pandacan area where they built the Bagong Barangay Housing project, a high-rise slum. But that was 70 years ago and I haven't been there since.