SINGAPORE: After the crowdsourced news site STOMP featured the story of a man who said that he would not be able to afford today the house he bought 50 years ago for S$26,000, it came as a shock to many netizens and Singaporeans.
Many agreed with the man that inflation has caused housing costs to skyrocket, although others said the comparison of prices between today and five decades ago is not so simple.
A man called Casey told STOMP he bought an HDB unit on Holland Drive for S$26,000. Moreover, he could afford it on his salary of S$250 a month. Casey, now 77, said that his job as a UOB clerk had been enough to support his wife, who stayed home to raise their son, as well as buy a five-room flat.
Today, however, he told STOMP that because of inflation, things are very different, and he doubts he would be able to do the same, given that Holland Drive is now a prime area.
He was later able to sell his flat for S$180,000, but some of his neighbours who waited just before the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) found that their flats fetched far higher prices in the S$900,000 range.
“What I am trying to say is that cost of living has gone up so much that it’s well nigh impossible to catch up,” STOMP quotes him.
Some commenters on his post wrote that housing prices are now out of reach and lamented that today’s salaries no longer tally with the cost of living.
Others, however, took another look at the comparison between 50 years ago and today.
One wrote that life before was far simpler and people had fewer things to spend on. “Can’t really compare. Most people (in) those days had very simple lifestyles. No restaurant outings unless on special occasions, no iPhones to buy every few years. Only one or two pairs of shoes that only get replaced when they come apart. No designer handbags and only one ordinary handbag that doesn’t get replaced unless it’s broken. No annual holidays overseas. Not owning a car unless you have a comfortable salary or earnings from business. The list goes on.”
When another claimed that S$26,000 50 years ago “is like a million bucks when buying (a) house today,” others disagreed.
One wrote that with inflation taken into consideration, the actual amount would only be S$120,000 today.
“To put it into perspective, his salary today would be about S$1.1k. Take an average poly grad clerk making S$3.5k, our income tripled or so compared to the cost of a house, but housing prices for this instance would be septupled. (X7) Or more. If you want to compare to other locations, say S$500k, that’s still 4 to 5x compared to our salary 3x… It’s genuinely an absurd increase.”
Another agreed, writing, “The guy’s flat was 8.6x his annual salary, and so if we take someone who makes S$3000 per month today, so a flat that cost 8.6x his annual salary is S$309,600. For sure, (you) can get a three-room BTO or maybe a four-room somewhere less convenient for that amount. Plus, there are dual incomes in almost every household now.”
When one commenter wrote that, with his current salary, he would probably only be able to afford a 20-foot container, another answered that even this would not be affordable, given today’s land prices.
The featured image above is from Depositphotos and is for illustration purposes only. /TISG
Read also: HDB resale prices to stabilise over next few years—Desmond Lee
