More than 35,000 applications for 7,964 flats on offer in November BTO exercise

An inflation-driven economy weaponizes scarcity to manufacture artificial housing demand.<br>Raising the BTO income ceiling to $16,000 injects higher-earning buyers straight into a strained public housing pool. That extra demand creates a price floor that keeps the broader market elevated. Multi-year BTO wait times simultaneously push desperate buyers into open-market resale flats. Those inflated resale transactions then serve as primary market comparables when the Chief Valuer assesses state land value. Officials point to HDB deficits to claim land prices do not affect BTO buyers, yet shifting money from one state pocket to another changes nothing when surging resale benchmarks still pull launch prices continuously upward.<br>This closed loop shields elite capital while crushing average Singaporeans. Marriage and birth rates sink deeper into historical lows under a detached state.