But for the price of a 2 room flat, I could buy a 3 bedroom house in a decent neighborhood.
In a country area away from major city hubs in the US perhaps. Certainly not in Singapore, where a house on a block of land would cost you perhaps $3,000,000 minimum. Given the price of land, the fact that you can buy a new 2-bedroom flat for 3-400k is pretty amazing.
And that money paid by the employer is just pay that you don't get in your paycheck. The same thing can be accomplished by setting aside some of your own pay in a savings account to buy a house. Those who don't use it to buy a house, don't get the benefit of that pay...so they get cheated.
To a certain extent yes, but CPF (or superannuation in Australia) has generally not come at the expense of wage rises, in other words, it was in addition to what people were getting paid. And even if you never buy a house, that CPF/super becomes your retirement fund, so you benefit from it when you are older.
You are also required to live there so many years before you can sell it. I don't want the government that deep in my pocket or my personal life
That rule is to prevent property speculation - pretty reasonable if you're buying a house subsidised by other tax payers. If you don't want to do that you can buy a condominium privately and do what you want with it.
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