Singapore's Imminent Expiration of Land Leases: From Growth and Equality to Discontent and Inequality?

Abstract

AbstractHaila described Singapore as a laboratory for a social scientist given the multiple ways land is used, managed or treated as a source of public revenue. Phang explains how housing has given the bottom 50 per cent of households, wealth equating to the level advocated in Piketty's ‘ideal society’. As fixed‐term leases expire, people who own apartments on public land will see their values fall to zero. Inequality will return, challenging the otherwise stable polity. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this paper explores how and why this unique land regime was created, and expose how theoretically inconsistent policies and their ad hoc, pragmatic application has created several rent leakages to a minority of the population who continue to hold freehold land. It offers some alternative strategies better informed by land rent theory, that might be adopted to preserve the benefits enjoyed for now.