Summary of How Singapore Solved Housing

00:00:00 - 00:10:00

The video discusses how Singapore's public housing policy has been successful in creating affordable, high-quality housing for the majority of the population. The policy is based on a residential revolution that focused on developing high-rise apartments and providing programs to make housing affordable for residents. There are some flaws to the system, but it is much more effective than allowing housing to be bought and sold in the free market.

• 00:00:00 Public housing in Singapore looks different than public housing in other countries because 80% of the population lives in public apartments. The country has adopted a unique set of policies that have allowed public housing to be affordable, high-quality, and plentiful. Can these policies be exported elsewhere?
• 00:05:00 The author discusses how Singapore solved its housing crisis by implementing a residential revolution which focused on developing high-rise apartments that were designed to be comfortable and easy to live in. The government also provided many programs to make housing affordable for residents, including mandatory social savings contributions and free maintenance. While there are some flaws to the system, the author believes that it is a much more effective way to solve the crisis than allowing housing to be bought and sold in the free market.
• 00:10:00 In Singapore, public housing is designed to prevent earlier racial tension by following strict ethnic quotas. This encourages a sense of unity and ensures different groups have close contact, but it also means buying or selling a flat may be easier or harder based on your ethnicity. The policies have had a monumental impact on Singapore, and there is perhaps no issue more personally significant than where, with who, and how well your family lives. Despite how tempting it may be to selectively copy-and-paste from what appears to be a model nation, doing so without the foundation of a strong, powerful, technocratic state, would produce only a weak house soon to fall.