Government policies and household mobility behaviour in Singapore

Abstract

This paper provides a rigorous study on the change in Central Provident Fund (CPF) policy in Singapore on 1 September 2002, on household mobility in general and on the affordability and accessibility of potential home-buyers in particular. The change brought about increased accessibility but reduced affordability for home-buyers. The latter has an impact on the shortfall months which are positively related to changes in mortgage rate, mortgage term and property price and negatively related to the amount of CPF available for home purchases. Further, the low critical price that households can afford without experiencing any shortfall implies that the majority of public and private home-buyers will be affected by the policy change. Consequently, the improvement in accessibility by allowing the use of CPF for downpayment may stimulate demand at the cost of higher financial risk to home-buyers and mortgage lenders.