Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore's Public Housing

by Beng Huat Chua

Examines the ways Singapore’s impressive public housing program is central to the political legitimacy of the city-state’s single-party regime, and the growing contradictions of its success.

The achievement of Singapore’s national public housing program is impressive by any standard. Within a year of its first election victory in 1959, the People's Action Party began to deliver on its promises. By the 1980s, 85% of the population had been rehoused in modern flats. Now, decades later, the provision of public housing shapes Singapore's environment. The standard accounts of this remarkable transformation leave many questions unanswered, from the historical to urgent matters of current policy. Why was housing such a priority in the 1960s? How did the provision of social welfare via public housing shape Singapore's industrialization and development over the last 50 years? Looking forward, can the HDB continue to be both a source of affordable housing for young families and a mechanism for retirement savings? What will happen when 99-year leases expire?

Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation is a culmination of Chua Beng Huat's study of Singapore's public housing system, its dynamics, and the ways it functions in Singapore's politics. The book will be of interest to citizens and to scholars of the political economy of Asian development, social welfare provision, and Singapore.

Genres: Sociology

192 pages, Paperback

Published March 22, 2024

Reviews

[Gin · Rating 5 out of 5]

(I used to be Prof Chua’s student)

If you have read Chua Beng Huat’s books and articles over the years, you will notice the clarity and conciseness of his writing in conveying his views on the subject matter. This book is no exception. His argument is as usual crystal clear, and accessible to scholars and non-scholars alike, but at the same time does not compromise on the depth and complexity that is the subject matter.

The book is also for me a consolidation of his work on housing, which stretches back over decades. It is partly a primer in public housing in Singapore, and an extremely useful reference for anyone wanting to understand Singapore public housing programme from its inception in the pre-independence era, to its present form, warts and all.

The main thesis of the book is something that I think was hinted at in his previous work but never explicitly mentioned - which is basically the title of the book. It has been a while but I don’t recall him making that argument previously about how the housing programme is essentially a state-subsidised wealth accumulation programme, though it never started out to be that way.

Indeed, being able to monetise public housing does contradicts the original intent of the housing programme to begin with (affordable public housing). This is an especially hot political issue for the ruling PAP because the young today increasingly feel that the price of flats, even those sold directly by the HDB is spiralling ever higher to the point that it feels out of reach, which entails the PAP government needing to continuously provide grants and subsidies to help because much of their political legitimacy rests on the provision of housing to the masses since the HDB is the only source of housing realistically available to the masses.

And yet the PAP government cannot have the prices lower too much because the older generations depend on those very high prices for their retirement. How are they going to square this circle?

I enjoyed reading this tremendously because Prof Chua was able to bring in new insights on a subject matter than has had its fair share of attention from scholars and non-scholars aside. I always thought that he was the authority on the sociology and political economy of public housing in Singapore, and this book certifies it. For me anyway.

[YJun · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear and salient review of the current public housing crisis and its historical roots. I really appreciated the explanation on the political economic of housing provision and the sustainability of public housing financing. Issues on the 99-year old lease were also raised, although I wished that it would been more thoroughly discussed since it's currently an issue that is unfolding in real time. Lastly, the food for thought on how Singapore is the closest contemporary (and unlikely) version of Rawls' theory of a property owning democracy is definitely intriguing, if not an alternative way to view Singapore's political structure. If you read Liberalism Disavoved previously, a lot of the points might seem rehashed so you could just skim through whenever. But the new book does provide a more thorough analysing on the political economy of housing, if that's what you're specifically interested in.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could've been half the length! Not sure why the author felt the need to belabour the same points in multiple chapters. Nonetheless, interesting clear-eyed perspective on the unique public housing system in Singapore.

[K1c · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a primer than a set of arguments. A valuable summary of where this political experiment stands.