PROVISION AND AFFORDABILITY OF HOUSING FOR THE ELDERLY : AN ANALYSIS

Abstract

Fertility decline and increasing longetivity are two main factors contributing to the ageing of Singapore's population. Topics on the ageing population have already been discussed for the last decade or more and implications on housing for the increasing ageing population are now coming to the fore. Furthermore, changes in the elderly's living arrangements will also have severe implications on the availability of housing. Much of our physical and social infrastructure was designed for a younger population and might not be barrier-free to the elderly population. Consequently, whatever system a country had in place for the care of the aged is under pressure. Issues such as retirement income, housing, transportation, communication and care are closely linked and inadequacies in one can have repercussions on one or more issues.

The objective of the academic exercise is to determine the living arrangement and housing and housing decisions of elderly household, and whether retirement housing was adequately provided. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction on the economic, social and political factors affecting the elderly access to housing. In Chapter 2, the author is going to touch on the factors determining the living arrangement and housing decisions of the elderly population. Chapter 3 reviews the current living arrangement of Singapore's elderly population which is dependent on both formal and informal factors. Chapter 4 reviews the current housing policies that are put in place to house the elderly population. An exploratory survey is being conducted to determine elderly's living arrangements and housing decision and subsequent results are reported in Chapter 5. Finally, Chapter 6 provides an analysis on the implications of the survey results and some recommendations are given and concluded.