How the Singapore Dream is inextricably linked to its HDB policies

[superadmin]

SINGAPORE – Housing in the land-scarce island republic is a hot button issue among its citizens as prices continue to skyrocket despite government intervention.

And mixed reactions were drawn in Malaysia when Local Government Development Minister Nga Kor Ming revealed that there would be a knowledge-sharing session with experts from Singapore on affordable housing management.

This garnered some backlash from opposition party PAS, which alleged that Malays are being priced out of their hometowns.

Singapore’s ethnic integration policy in its public housing was once labelled as “the most intrusive social policy” in the republic, but the government has repeatedly defended it as an integral part of nurturing racial harmony.

National Development Minister Desmond Lee recently told a group of Malaysian journalists that the Housing and Development Board (HDB) goes beyond simple homeownership to shaping social policy, social aspirations and goals.

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