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In Singapore, priced-out young singles rail at the PAP over property policies: ‘they’re so unaware’

  • Some 2 in 3 Singaporeans in their 20s report having to contend with the city state’s red-hot rental market due to insufficient savings
  • Growing anxieties over property strike at a pillar of government policy, and it’s turning some young people away from the ruling People’s Action Party

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Public residential housing in Singapore. Rents for private flats and public housing surged about 32 per cent and 27 per cent, respectively, in March from a year earlier. Angst over housing may soon start to play out in the city state’s politics. Photo: Bloomberg
Bloomberg
Expats aren’t the only ones feeling the pinch of rents in Singapore rising at the fastest pace in the world.
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The pain is trickling down to young singles like Sonam who are largely shut out of the nation’s subsidised housing programme and starting to question the government’s resolve to tackle the problem.

The 33-year-old tech worker, a lifelong supporter of the ruling People’s Action Party, moved to Thailand after her landlord raised her rent by 70 per cent for a two-year lease. She plans to support the opposition in the next election.

“We’re all moving out in our early ‘20s and now there’s this: ‘oh, just go back home’” to your parents, Sonam said from Bangkok, declining to give her last name for fear of losing her job. “The fact that they’re so unaware of what is really happening to millennials and what we need to be able to survive in Singapore – it’s just bizarre to me.”

Young Singaporeans raise their fists as they chant demands for workers during a Labour Day rally in Singapore on May 1. The city state’s government acknowledges that property prices have soared, but insists that incomes have kept pace. Photo: EPA-EFE
Young Singaporeans raise their fists as they chant demands for workers during a Labour Day rally in Singapore on May 1. The city state’s government acknowledges that property prices have soared, but insists that incomes have kept pace. Photo: EPA-EFE
For the PAP, solving the housing problem is crucial as the party navigates succession as Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, son of the nation’s founding father, is preparing to hand power to the next generation of party leaders. The party had its worst showing in the 2020 vote despite winning 89 per cent of parliamentary seats, prompting Lee to say that policies must reflect the younger generation’s “significantly different life aspirations and priorities.”
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