Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Singapore home vacancy rate among world highest: Financialization of housing


Vacancy rate as percentage

Singapore home vacancy is among the highest in developed countries, according to Zerohedge. URA statistic shown that our private property vacancy rate is at 8.4% at 4Q2016. The huge vacancy rate could be due to absentee landlord, or developer not willing to lower prices to sell the property.

Singapore is a special case with substantial government housing, which is bench marked to a certain percentage point lower than private property. But skyrocketed government housing has raided Singaporeans' pension funds, in addition of resulting to one of lowest fertility rate in the planet. The PAP government then blames the citizen for not wanting to procreate and uses this as a  pretext to flood Singapore with foreigners.



Home vacancy rate -- a financial abuse of human rights

The world’s money markets have priced people out of cities, a United Nations independent expert has said, blaming financial markets and speculators for treating housing as a “place to park capital.”

“Housing has lost its social function and is seen instead as a vehicle for wealth and asset growth. It has become a financial commodity, robbed of its connection to community, dignity and the idea of home,” said Leilani Farha, the Special Rapporteur on the right to housing.

“The financial world has essentially operated without any consideration of housing as a human right and States are complicit: they have supported financial markets in a way that has made housing affordable for most residents,” Ms. Farha said.

Total number of houses vacant

Can Singapore private property be lower?

This is equivalent of asking will the rich want to loss their wealth. If the rich do not want to suffer financial losses due to asset depreciation, no way Singaporeans will have reasonable access to private property -- unless there is a financial crisis.

Moreover, when 1% owns roughly 90% all over the world, every single peasant will be priced out of housing without government intervention.

The city of Paris has decided it’s had enough, and implemented a tax in 2015. They didn’t quite get the results they wanted, so they’re now tripling the tax to 60%.

Singapore government certainly has a long way to go, in view of what the French government is doing. Meanwhile, our real estate keep clamoring for more relax regulations of property.


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