EFFECTIVENESS OF CPF HOUSING GRANT

Abstract

The government gave top priority to public housing programmes immediately after assuming power in 1959. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) was established in 1960 to undertake the task of slum clearance, large scale public housing programmes and urban renewal. The results of the building programmes are evident everywhere. Currently, the emphasis of the government is to preserve and promote traditional values that generate family cohesiveness. To this end, the government introduced the CPF Housing Grant to strengthen family ties in 1994. The CPF Housing Grant forms the backbone of this research. This study attempts to assess the effectiveness of the CPF Housing Grant in strengthening family ties. Surveys were conducted and analysed using frequency tables under the SPSS software. The various areas of analysis include the ability of the Grant to influence location choices, the ability of the Grant in making public housing more affordable, and the attractiveness of the Grant to induce households to purchase HDB flats. It was established from the survey that the CPF Housing Grant may not be that effective in attracting young couples to stay near their parents but it is no doubt an incentive to encourage them to do so.