OPINION: Singapore’s public housing policy - sucking citizens dry to fatten state’s reserves

Yawningbread.wordpress.com, 17 Apr 2011
It works like this: When you buy a new flat from the HDB, you deplete your present and future savings paying for your flat. The money you pay goes to the HDB. Part of it goes to pay for the actual construction of the block, but a large (though indeterminate because of lack of data) part of it goes ultimately to the Singapore Land Authority based on a notional value of the land your block sits on. That money that is paid to the land authority is considered part of the national reserves.
In short, your personal savings have been sucked out and piled onto the state’s savings. Full story