China Ghost cities are now alive and filled with 300 million people -What is going on?

[Nan Yang]

We used to build ahead of demand too, but flats became oversupplied when an economic crisis hit and 'ghost towns' appeared. Some unsold units then were combined and sold at a discount.



The government switched to Build-To-Order (BTO) as the mode of sale when MBT took over.



However that led to a massive decline in housing supply which pushed up prices. The people were unhappy about it and that was reflected in the General Elections 2011 lol.
The government in response then changed the BTO requirement to 50% and ramp-up supply to cool down prices.

Prices have remained stable since then, allowing median household income to catch up.

Spoiler

I only lived in Singapore for about 3 years in the late 80s. Two of us rented a two room HDB flat at AngMoKio. Landlord was taking a huge risk as you are not supposed to rent out the entire flat as these HDB flats are subsidized.
In the 80s buying a HDB or even HUDB was painless as you could use your CPF pension to drip pay. Those days contribution to CPF pension was substantial.

Maybe time has changed.

 

[sinait]

We used to build ahead of demand too, but flats became oversupplied when an economic crisis hit and 'ghost towns' appeared. Some unsold units then were combined and sold at a discount.



The government switched to Build-To-Order (BTO) as the mode of sale when MBT took over.



However that led to a massive decline in housing supply which pushed up prices. The people were unhappy about it and that was reflected in the General Elections 2011 lol.
The government in response then changed the BTO requirement to 50% and ramp-up supply to cool down prices.

Prices have remained stable since then, allowing median household income to catch up.

Spoiler

I think it was around 1981, when then Minister Teh Cheang Wan announced they were going to increase new flat prices 20% every year.
That created an artificial huge demand and a mad rush with long queues for new flats.
The government then went on an accelerated building spree and ignoring quality in many cases.
Some made hasty but unsatisfactory choices before the price go up.
Many queued up to beat the price increases but eventually decided not to buy when prices had increased by the time its their turn to choose a flat.

That coupled with a recession in 1985, I believe were the main reasons for the first housing glut, mainly affecting units at the Woodlands new town.
.

I only lived in Singapore for about 3 years in the late 80s. Two of us rented a two room HDB flat at AngMoKio. Landlord was taking a huge risk as you are not supposed to rent out the entire flat as these HDB flats are subsidized.
In the 80s buying a HDB or even HUDB was painless as you could use your CPF pension to drip pay. Those days contribution to CPF pension was substantial.

Maybe time has changed.

I think your "two room HDB" is most probably a "3 room" flat consisting of 2 bedrooms and 1 living room.
Renting out whole flats were quite common during the 80s.
It wasn't a huge risk until later on when they would repossess offenders flat.
Not so sure about the exact timing though.
.

 

[Mista]

I only lived in Singapore for about 3 years in the late 80s. Two of us rented a two room HDB flat at AngMoKio. Landlord was taking a huge risk as you are not supposed to rent out the entire flat as these HDB flats are subsidized.
In the 80s buying a HDB or even HUDB was painless as you could use your CPF pension to drip pay. Those days contribution to CPF pension was substantial.

Maybe time has changed.

Well you still can pay using CPF with little cash outlay, but there are those who prefer to take a bank loan because CPF offers a higher interest rate than banks. You may not have enough for retirement if you pay with all of your monthly CPF contributions, unless you have other investment/retirement plans.

Landlord was taking a huge risk as you are not supposed to rent out the entire flat as these HDB flats are subsidized.

Not sure back then, but citizens are now allowed to rent out after living a few years.

https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/r...lat-bedroom/renting-out-your-flat/eligibility

 

[TaiShang]

Western neo-fascist FAKE NEWS media (as per President Trump). That's probably what is going on.

 

[Han Patriot]

They don't care if people live in these cities or not. Building employees people. That's all they care.

Seriously have you ever been to China? Does it even make sense if we kept tearing and rebuilding the same thing? Gosh, if you wanna be an indiot at least try to be a logical one. China won't even have a penny left if we did that, yet our ppl are well fed clothed and sheltered. Not rich but at least we are not like subsaharan India.

 

[beijingwalker]

Seriously have you ever been to China? Does it even make sense if we kept tearing and rebuilding the same thing? Gosh, if you wanna be an indiot at least try to be a logical one. China won't even have a penny left if we did that, yet our ppl are well fed clothed and sheltered. Not rich but at least we are not like subsaharan India.

He is a typical example of someone becoming brain dead after years and decades of poisoning by the western media.