A property tax would be a solution.
So empty properties start costing money, and the owners will have to start renting them out.
It also weans local government from land auction income, where the incentive is higher land prices.
And provides a stable income stream from property owners, who will hold the local government a lot more accountable for spending.
Problem is you can't just copy Singapore housing development model. If it could be done, China would have done it years ago.
Singapore is just a city state with a small where the large portion of permanent population or citizens can enjoy subsidized housing. If do that , say in Shenzhen, there will be 1 billion application for subsidized housing !
No no that is not true China can emulate Singapore if they want But the city father does not want to do it why?
See it has a lot to do with how China transfer tax proceed to the central government The way it is now is most of the provinces sent large proportion of their tax to the central government Ideally the central government should return back the money to the provinces But in China THEY DID NOT! or only small amount Now at the same time the central government tell the provinces to provide for the welfare system of the population like building health care, street, school system, inner city transportation .
Now the provinces is deep trouble where are they going to get the money for all of this ? There is no property tax! Until recently they cannot even sell bond now they do. Now where can they get the money to fund all this health care and social welfare? The answer is selling land to the private property!
So the population has to buy apartment from the property developer at huge marked up cost!
That is not the case with Singapore because all the land belong to the government When you buy a house in Singapore you don't buy a land. You only but the building that sit on government owned land. They lease it to you! for 99 years.
Also you buy the apartment not from developer but from government owned property developer called HDB. That sell the house at small profit to the people.So the cost of owning a home is lower compare to buying from property developer. There is private developer that owned their own land But it will cost you a fortune
Now where the government got the money from ? It is form "forced saving" when you worked in Singapore the gov forced you to save something like 12% of your salary(not sure now) then the employer and government match your contribution the same 12% So for every dollar you save 25 cents Taxis flat! and Not progressive
But you cannot use those money except to buy a house, Child education, fund your retirement, or pay for medical cost!. As there is no pension in Singapore You are responsible for your own pension THIS IS BAD SYSTEM THAT WHY YOU SEE OLD MEN AND WOMEN STILL WORK IN SPORE!
But the advantage is high percentage of home ownership! coupled with Chinese obsession of invest in brick! House pricing keep rising up BUT IT IS A BAD DEAL YOU DON'T ACTUALLY BUY A HOUSE YOU ONLY LEASE!
The land is a very limited resource in Singapore. The government's affordable public housing scheme provides for what like 90% of the citizens, where else in the world do you get such a high figure. Should PAP let it works like a free market, they will be stuck in a disaster like HK now.
Also, one gets to withdraw the CPF partially past the pension age. It basically provides a safety net to prevent citizens from falling into poverty in their old age, provided they have decent jobs to build up their CPF account.
Calling Trump bluff.
1. Just my opinion, but all the news about TikTok going to sell its US operations, that was all fake news. That was never going to happen.
1. Just my opinion, but all the news about TikTok going to sell its US operations, that was all fake news. That was never going to happen.
2. This Oracle news could be interesting. What that really is, that is a joint venture, just like the ones they do in China.
Well, you know, it was never realistic to begin with. Suppose you want to buy a new car. That would involve a couple of visits to the dealership. To buy a house, offers counter offers, then lawyers, then closing, which takes weeks or months. To buy or sell a small business, long discussions of value is needed for both sides to be happy about it. Here we have a supposed deal far bigger than any of that, to be completed in full in a matter of weeks. That just will not happen in the real world.Haha what happened to “either sell it or ban it”?
Like I said before a lot of people in this forum freak out over every little threat leaked by Trump. The man is like seventy percent bluster and often uses high pressure negotiation tactics to bluff his way to success.