PUBLIC HOUSING CHOICE BEHAVIOUR IN SINGAPORE: BUYERS' STATED PREFERENCE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

Much research has focused on tracing new town development in Singapore and discussing issues on design and sense of place in the various new towns. However, no research has been done on buyers' preference of HDB housing product options, namely, new flats in new estates, new flats in mature estates and resale flats in mature estates. By looking at the buyers' perspective through the use of discrete choice (multinomial logit) model, this research attempts to provide an insight to the reasons of oversupply of 17,500 new HDB flats in new estates. Factor analysis yielded four factors of housing attributes, namely, physical, amenities, financial benefits and spatial, which may influence buyers' choice of HDB flats. The results of the discrete choice model indicate that all four factors are important in influencing buyers' choice of HDB flats. By relating back to the perception ratings, it can be concluded that the main reason for the oversupply of new flats in new estates is due to the lack of amenities and transportation infrastructure. The results demonstrate that people in the 21-30 years old age group prefer new flats in new estates. There is also a difference in the importance of factors affecting the choice of HDB flats between buyers in different age groups. The findings in this study can assist HDB in designing and implementing HDB flats to suit buyers' preferences. This will eventually result in the optimisation of resources in the public housing market in Singapore.