6th Feb 2022 

Singapore is an island city-state with about 300,000 more residents than greater Sydney, but far less than 10 per cent of its land area.

Yet, according to economist Cameron Murray, it has managed to boost home ownership for 25-34-year-olds from 60 to nearly 90 per cent over the past four decades, at a time when the percentage of Australians that age who own a home has plunged from 60 to 45 per cent.

So, how have they done it?

“What Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, provides mortgages, and allows buyers to use their compulsory retirement savings [what Australians call superannuation] for both a deposit and repayments,” Murray says.