S'pore parents' housing type could show how kids will fare

New research by the National University of Singapore (NUS) has found that the type of housing owned by Singaporean parents can be a good predictor of the next generation's economic status.

According to the study, children from grassroots families, defined as those with parents in the bottom 60 per cent, end up in housing that is more valuable than that of their parents. That is mainly due to Singapore schools being located close to Housing Board towns.

In contrast, children from middle-income families - parents in the 60th to 80th percentiles - have housing types that are worse than the ones that their parents lived in. This could be because government subsidies motivate them to buy more affordable public housing.

Another reason is that such children who grow up in suburban or non-mature HDB towns might find it harder to buy homes in neighbourhoods with high-quality public schools, which tend to be in pricier, more central locations.

Meanwhile, the value of homes owned by children born to the wealthiest 20 per cent of families are closest to their parents' housing and wealth levels - partially due to the lack of wealth redistribution policies and low tax rates.

Still, such children end up worse off in absolute terms because there is less room for them to surpass their parents.

The research team, comprising Professor Sumit Agarwal and Associate Professor Qian Wenlan from NUS Business School, and Associate Professor Sing Tien Foo and Assistant Professor Yi Fan from the real estate department, combed data from housing transactions between 1995 and last year.

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