It’s obvious that homes in Singapore are smaller than those in the US and many other parts of the world. Why is this so?
Demand:
- What percent of Singaporean household income is spent on housing? How regressive is this? How do we account for purchases using retirement funds (CPF)?
- How does the demand curve for living space depend on household size and demographic group?
- Do school districts have an observable influence? What about expat areas?
Supply:
- What proportion of the cost of an apartment due to the land?
- How linear is the dependency between apartment value and apartment size?
- How much cheaper are apartments with longer commutes?
- How big is the effect of regulatory limits on living space to land ratios?
- Does it make sense for the government to manage house prices because of their role as household collateral in a fractional reserve system? Are there significant interactions with monetary policy?
- How much monopoly profit does the local building industry enjoy?