In the last General Election (GE), high property prices was the hot tropic. The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) suffered it's worst election result in living memory in part due to the sky-high property prices.
So taming the property market was a priority for the PAP and National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan proudly said on Tuesday that Singapore has managed "soft landing" for its housing market by only allowing property prices to 15% since their lows in 2009. Man, talk about mismatch expectations.
Since when is a rise of 15% a good thing for people who are hoping for a lowering of the price? Now the trick is in the details. Mr. Khaw dubiously used the prices in 2009 and compare them to the current prices; thus you have a rise of 15%. Unfortunately, that's not what most Singaporeans are expecting the PAP to do. They are hoping that the government will lower the property price; but the PAP go tell them prices are just risen by 15%? Isn't that just self-defeating?
I know the PAP don't want to talk about lowering property prices, but that's actually what they should be doing. Yes, people who bought property during the property boom will be unhappy when they read that their property had lowered in value, but if those guys are in the majority, the PAP would never had the result they had in the last GE.
The PAP need to stop comparing property prices to 2009 (at its lows) and compare them to its high during the property boom. They need to tell Singaporeans how much the property prices has came down due to their actions. They should do so because according to the results of the last GE, that's what Singaporeans want. Comparing prices to 2009 helps no one and tell Singaporeans nothing.
3 comments:
But singaporeans like to compare property prices to their parents times in the 70s and 80s. So what is with the double standards? if khaw were to compare it to 2011, then he would have said that prices dropped even more.
However, no matter which statistic he used, there will always be a group of people who will say prices have not fallen far enough, or increased too much. wonder if they say the same about their pay packet when it goes up. LOL.
"if khaw were to compare it to 2011, then he would have said that prices dropped even more."
That's a good thing for the PAP. Remember, the complain in 2011 is sky-high property prices. Comparing the price to 2011 allows the PAP to show that property prices has come down (if it did so) which is much better for them than saying prices "rise" by 15% since 2009.
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