SINGAPORE: Workers’ Party Member of Parliament Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) wrote in an Oct 15 social media post about a woman who told him about the challenges singles face because of government policies.
“Besides having to wait till she turned 35 before she could apply for a new flat—a policy that the #workersparty has agitated against, since we believe that most family formation would have occurred by the age of 28, and the additional delay only leaves many singles unable to strike out independently—she also noted that the policy had an unintended consequence for those who were still caring for an elderly parent,” he wrote.
Assoc Prof Lim added that because singles who avail of BTOs are only allowed a studio or two-room unit, those whose parents live with them but can’t be listed as co-applicants for the housing unit end up needing to stay together in a cramped living space or look for a home on the more expensive resale market.
Moreover, if they do choose to buy a larger resale unit, they often find themselves excluded from many financial support schemes due to the higher valuation of their flat, in spite of not having “particularly great financial circumstances”, he added.
Assoc Prof Lim also wrote that more and more singles could find themselves in such situations as Singapore matures as a high-income economy where people get married later in life. Noting that this is an issue that his fellow Sengkang GRC MP Mr Louis Chua has brought up in Parliament, he wrote that the Workers’ Party will “continue to advocate for common-sense ways to adapt our public policies to the changing demography of Singaporean societies”.
In September 2022, Mr Chua made the case for lowering the BTO eligibility age from 35 to 28 for people who are single. At that point, however, he added that the most pressing issue was the supply and availability of homes.
In July this year, after National Development Minister Desmond Lee said that the government is studying better access to housing for singles, Mr Chua reiterated the call to lower the eligibility age for singles. /TISG
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