THE IMPACT OF SINGAPORE PERMANENT RESIDENT AND ETHNIC INTEGRATION POLICY QUOTAS ON THE HDB RESALE MARKET

Abstract

Quotas have traditionally been the policy tool of choice for the Singapore government in achieving less segregated outcomes, especially in the area of housing. Using information from HDB for quota statuses and flat characteristics, 1 construct a hedonic pricing model to study the price effects of the different quota classifications on HDB resale units. My regression results show that price effects for Ethnic Integration Policy (E1P) quotas are larger than price effects for Singapore Permanent Resident (SPR) quotas. Using a weighted sum model of price effects, I attribute these price effects to two factors, namely the thinness of the market and the segregation effect. While my results show that the presence of SPRs in the resale market does affect prices, I conclude that the effect is small due to their thinner markets.