The macro impacts of public resold dwellings on private housing prices in Singapore

Abstract

In Singapore, the public resale housing market is an actively traded public owner occupier housing market succeeding to the heavily regulated new public owner occupier housing sector, in which the new public housing units are sold at a heavily subsidized price. The resale market was originally aimed at facilitating consumer housing choices and harnessing the greater efficiency of market mechanism in the delivery of public housing. However, it also became a vehicle for many Singaporeans to upgrade to private housing. This raises the concerns of its impacts on the private housing market as well as the equitable distribution of public resources. This paper first analytically reviews the retrospect of Singapore housing system, then empirically studies the impacts of public resold dwellings on the private housing prices, probing the links between the public resale market and the private housing market as well as the implications on the equitable distribution of public resources.