By Adam Berls

housing

Could BC take lessons from Singapore when it comes to housing?

Aug 16, 2023 | 2:36 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — A new analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) has examined what affordable housing looks like in Singapore and how the model over there and certain aspects of it, could work in BC.

Marc Lee, a senior economist with the CCPA, actually went to Singapore to find out what Singapore has done and if anything could be replicated here.

The major emphasis of Singapore housing policy has been on ensuring home ownership for middle-class families. New apartments can only be sold to Singapore citizens and a series of priority schemes is used to allocate new units. Up to 95% of apartment sales are set aside for first-time applicants, including special priority for young couples. People wishing to live close to their parents get additional weight in the balloting.

Lee notes that Singapore’s housing market is also much more tightly regulated and managed than in BC (or anywhere else in North America) to extents that may be impossible politically to replicate. Rent prices have also been increasing in Canada, particularly in BC, and the Tenant Resource and Advisory Centre says there are a number of problems with the situation.

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Twitter: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com