Of housing

Dave and I were just lamenting last night about how the lack of a real rental market (ie, one that is not mostly catered to low-end foreign workers and middle-class/top expatriates) means that we can't really get a place of our own here without buying a government-subsidised flat that is within our budgets. And buying a flat would entail getting married, which isn't in our plans. So what are we to do?

But I digress.

Stumbled on this blogpost via Singapore Daily earlier and I actually agree with a lot of the points that he makes. For one, a lot of people don't leave their homes until they get married largely driven by a government policy that homes are for marriage and procreation only! Why else would we deny singles from obtaining their first homes till the age of 35?

Aside from the pertinent points the blogger makes in the post, one serious consequence that I had to witness recently was that this lack of rental market ties singles and the unwed to their abusive families.

Sadly, I have a friend who is going through a personal crisis right now, where she's not ready to marry (also because I think her boyfriend is a douchenozzle). But at the same time, her mother is emotionally abusive and is actually a large part for her recent mental breakdowns - which were serious and actually required clinical help. It's become so bad that we would watch her shuttle from a relative's to a friend's home just to get away from her family.

And she's not the first person who's gone through this, and she definitely wouldn't be the last. One of my older cousin recently told me about how she wished she could move out of her family home much earlier - she's another person who had to seek counselling too.

So really, when the housing market is geared towards the one single driver of 'must marry then can buy house', you leave a lot of people out cold.


THINK HAPPINESS: How to marry when no freedom to love?: "It was recently disclosed that fewer people in their twenties and thirties are getting married in Singapore, and more are getting divorced ...."