[Oyk]

I believe the government will be forced to introduce some ice cold measures to stop this.

Of course, property prices are a good indicator of a country's economic health. Cost of outright buying and cost of renting. Shophouses here cost a few million dollars, while there are so many similar, eve identical, shophouses, those Peranakan style types, in Malaysia which are abandoned with no buyer while the only tenants (who are owing rent in arrears) are the rats and cockroaches.

The owners couldn't be bothered to maintain and upkeep them, and just left them to rot. I saw these in Ipoh, Malacca and Penang. So many!

So Singapore's property prices are high because of the simpur Econ 101 Theory of Supply and Demand.

But we need some government intervention. Prices of commercial properties and private residential properties can go as high as the buyer is prepared to pay, but prices of HDB flats must be controlled, not subsidised. We cannot allow HDB prices to keep rising and government subsidies to keep increasing which will lead to a vicious cycle. Subsidies will eventually come from taxes, while increasing subsidies is just a short-term solution to a long-term problem.