Evaluation

=Evaluation of S’pore’s housing policies=

**Homeseekers:**
Elegibility conditions to buy a new flat from HDB (S’pore citizen, at least 21 years old) ensures the welfare of all Singapore citizens as Singapore has a high population density and the government has to ensure that most percentage of flats built has to house Singapore citizens. The age limit is to ensure that the buyer has a stable income and can afford to pay housing installments. However this means that foreigners living in Singapore will not be able to buy HDB flats and may have to settle for private housing which is more expensive.

The cap of 2 housing units per individual ensures that the rich would not dominate must of the houses in Singapore but to give everyone an opportunity to own a house. There is also an income ceiling for the different kinds of flats to cater to the needs of the poor people, preventing the high-income people from buying all the cheaper HDB flats, resulting in the low-income people not having enough money to buy the more expensive flats or private property, and thus resulting in being homeless.

There is also an Ethnic Integration Policy which sets a proportion of the different ethnic groups to restrict the number of a certain ethnic group which would lead to racial issues. A balance of the different ethinic groups would also allow the different groups to interact with one another,and as Singapore is a multi-racial city, this is a sound policy to promote racial harmony.

For the criteria for family nuclueus, it is to ensure the flats are utilized and not just 1 person staying in a big flat, it also helps those with families buying together to get priority

**Homeowners: **
The Minimum Occupation Period policy prevents homeowners from buying and selling houses too frequently. This is because if people just wants to buy and sell houses to make profits, it would be disadvantageous to the poor people as they would have to buy houses at a higher price if all the cheaper flats are already bought buy the higher-income people(which makes up a higher percentage of Singapore citizens as compared to poor people) and selling them at a high price. This would be a sound policy since the poor people would be homeless if the flats they could afford are already bought and about to be sold at a higher price.

The policy about the keeping of dogs basically ensures the welfare of citizens. As dogs can be disturbing others by barking or dirtying the neighborhood with their droppings, there has to be a limit to the number of dogs and they have to be approved by the AVA so as to reduce all these problems caused.

Flat owners are also restricted to sublet their flats too early so as to prevent them from buying flats only to be rented out for profit and not intending to stay in the flat at all. However, under certain conditions, HDB still allows flats subletting of flats to maximise the usage of the flat, for example if a person is going overseas to work for a period of time, and no other people is staying in the flat, it can be subletted to others so that people who temporarily has no place to stay would not be homeless.

Singapore has limited land space, of which majority is used for housing. So instead of using up land for building more factories, homeowners are allowed to carry out small-scaled businesses which can replace a factory, office or shop. Still, the main purpose of a flat is to house people so the business cannot be too large-scaled. For the large-scaled businesses, they have to be approved by HDB for the welfare of other residents. This is because large-scaled businesses might cause inconvenience to others, eg. taking up too much space along corridors, making too much noise.

Many people frequently invest in private property, so the policy regarding investing in private property states that homeowners must still live in their flat after buying private property. This is to fully utilise HDB flats, ensuring that people do not just buy private property and leave the flats empty as it can be used to house others.

Upgrading programmes shows good governance, also providing for the welfare of the citizens. Many things gets obsolete after some time, so there is a need to constantly upgrade to improve on facilities for more convenience and also to prevent accidents due to faulty objects from occurring. For example, there is the lift upgrading programme to stop on every floor for the convenience of residents in that block to save time and effort from climbing up the stairs. The government also makes certain upgrading programmes optional and lets the residents vote to decide on whether to carry out the process. This is for the welfare of the people, in such a way that if the residents feel that the upgrades are not worth paying for, they can vote against it. It also shows good governance as most of the upgrading programmes are subsidised by the government so that the residents still get to enjoy benefits even though they might not be rich.

All the policies and terms set by the HDB revolve around public safety. This reflects good governance. Also, the rules are well-defined, and clearly shown.

The flat has to remain a place of residence after setting up a home office so as to prevent people from buying flats and subsequently turn them into an office, leaving others who really want to purchase a flat for residential stay homeless. It also concerns for the welfare of Singaporeans as hazardous chemicals or substances are not allowed and must not create noise, smoke, dust etc. which cause inconvenience. Each flat has a maximum number of subtenants allowed to prevent overcrowding. Priority is also given to Singaporeans as only Singaporeans are permitted subtenants, to ensure that most, if not all, Singaporeans can have a place to stay. Businesses are limited to office work such as accountancy to prevent customers from crowding the corridors and causing inconvenience to other residents in the case of clothes shop, etc.

Most of the policies are reasonable and beneficial, so as to ensure that all Singaporeans have a roof over their heads. However, HDB housing might not be sustainable if the population keeps increasing, and it will be a challenge to pack millions of people into a tiny island, also the increasing number of people would mean that there have to be more control over the number of flats one has, and more eligibility conditions would have to be made to prevent over-demand of flats.