SINGAPORE - Public housing in Singapore was less affordable in 2024 compared with 2022, even though the Republic remained among the few major cities in the Asia-Pacific region to offer attainable homes for purchase, a new report from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) has found.

The ULI, a global non-profit research and education organisation, considers home ownership attainable when the ratio of median home prices to median annual household income is below 5.

The price-to-income ratio of HDB flats in 2024 was 4.3.

Of the 51 market segments studied in the report on home attainability across the Asia-Pacific region, published on July 9, only three major cities had homes with a price-to-income ratio of 5 and below in 2024.

These included Housing Board flats in Singapore, and apartments in Melbourne, Australia, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

ULI said the price-to-income ratio of HDB flats in 2024 has risen when compared with 2022. The ratio stood at 4.3 in 2024, it was 4.7 in 2023, and 3.7 in 2022.

The median price of an HDB flat in 2024 was US$439,348 (S$562,402), down from US$461,289 in 2023. Across the cities tracked by ULI, median annual household income was highest in Singapore at US$101,666.

Despite this, Singapore is not the most affordable location for home buying, as apartments in Perth in Australia have a price-to-income ratio of 4.1, ULI said.

But it noted that nearly 80 per cent of the Singapore population live in HDB flats, and only 7.6 per cent of homes in Perth are apartments.

No city scored a price-to-income ratio of below four in 2024.

ULI said that while the number of HDB flats built has passed 1.2 million units, the pace of development has been “relatively slow” in recent years and remained static during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This may explain rising prices and falling attainability,” it said.