RESIDENTIAL LOCATION CHOICES OF MILLENNIALS AND BABY BOOMERS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Singapore’s shift in demographics has seen the growth of Millennials and Baby Boomers who are aged 20-34 years and aged 65 years and over in 2017, respectively and these two age groups account for almost half of the country’s population. Hence, their residential location choices have significant implications on cross-neighbourhood variation in demographic composition as well as local housing market dynamics. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding on how residential location choices of the Millennials and Baby Boomers differ from those of the same age groups of the previous generations, and in turn, influence temporal demographic change among different subzones in Singapore. In doing so, ordered logit regressions are estimated with the quintile changes in the share of young and old populations between 2000 and 2017 as the dependent variable and temporal changes in diverse neighbourhood characteristics at the subzone level as explanatory variables. Estimation results demonstrate that Millennials tend to increasingly choose subzones that have seen increases in BTO supply, newer housing units, and MRT stations and that are closer to CBD compared to young population of the previous generation. Comparatively, Baby Boomers tend to choose subzones that have seen increases in housing stock and prefer to stay closer to schools than the previous generation. These results suggest that both Millennials and Baby Boomers are more sensitive towards housing availability than previous generations when choosing their residential locations. Also evident is that locational convenience including the proximity to CBD and public transportation accessibility has become more significant in residential location choices among young people. These findings offer significant planning and policy implications. Residential location preferences of different age groups and their temporal changes should be better understood and reflected in housing policy and neighbourhood planning to maintain more balanced demographic compositions across neighbourhoods in Singapore.