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Since the majority of Singaporeans live in Housing Development Board (HDB) apartments, it is necessary to examine how the often rigid rules applied by HDB must be updated to meet the country's changing needs.
The HDB was established in 1960 to meet the housing needs of a Singapore that had just secured the autonomy of British colonial rulers. At that time, several generations of families would live together and nobody was looking at this type of installation. Traditional marriages also have not taken the legalistic character of our current civil marriages. Often men would have more than one woman and they would all live under one household. Child custody issues and other related issues would be dealt with between the parties and other family members with little or no government intervention.
Fast forward 50 years and this is no longer the case and HDB rules are such that for a couple to qualify for an apartment, they should get married. This has undoubtedly led some young people to hasten their marriage, just to go out together and have their own place. Are these young people necessarily all ready for marriage?
Like it or not, divorce statistics are on the rise and I have no doubt that the inflexible rules of the HDB have a role to play. Because of the pressures to get an apartment, we have young people who rush to get married just so that they can have an independent life, even if they are not emotionally or mentally ready for the wedding. To get a full-fledged apartment without having to get married, you would have to be 35 years old. Should this minimum age be reduced according to the evolution of our lifestyles?
Another example where the rules of the HDB seem to have caused more harm than good in divorces where both parents are divided and control the children. In such cases, the invariable riddle of who has the right to enroll children as "essential occupants" arises since both parents now living separately must meet the "qualifying family unit" requirement. Required by the HDB. Should HDB rules surely ensure that its rules are updated to meet the needs of the 21st century?
This is all the more urgent as divorced parents tend to share care and control of children, which would mean that there would be more people stuck in this constraint.
The rules of HDB are the reason why parents are caught in this artificial scenario of having to enumerate the "essential occupants" in the first place. It is therefore imperative that they sort it out. Housing is after all the most crucial thing for an independent adult after food and water.
This entry was posted in Housing, Opinion.
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