The Big Read: Young couples delaying plans to marry, buy property or have kids amid red-hot inflation, but at what cost? - CNA

The record high rents for public and private housing have also put paid to some young couples’ plans of finding a temporary abode before their flats are constructed.

Mr How Xing Quan, 34, and his wife moved into a co-living studio apartment in Farrer Park in February last year while waiting for their executive condominium unit in Sengkang to be ready to move in at the end of this year.

But after about six months, their landlord tried to increase their S$2,200 monthly rent by S$300 and they had to move into her grandmother’s condominium unit, he told TODAY in an earlier interview last month.

The HDB has said that BTO flats remain affordable, despite strong demand and rising prices of resale flats.

Affordability indicators, such as home price-to-income ratios and the proportion of monthly income used to service mortgage instalments, are still lower on international benchmarks, National Development Minister Desmond Lee told Parliament in October.

"BIG DEAL FOR SINGAPORE"

While there is little quality research on the effect of economic uncertainty and inflation on major life decisions, severe economic shocks such as the 1929 to 1939 Great Depression do seem to have been associated with significant changes to life choices, said economist Walter Theseira.

“By historic standards, the high inflation we are experiencing in Singapore is not by any reasonable standards an economic crisis,” said the associate professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences.

While he noted that there have been long periods of macroeconomic instability, such as the stagflation era that lasted a number of years in several Western economies in the 1970s, Singapore has had little to no recent experience with prolonged economic difficulty.

History has also shown that for most times, life goes on no matter how bad or volatile economic conditions are.

“I think the most sensible advice is that people should move on with their life but do so prudently,” said Assoc Prof Theseira.

“It is really up to each individual to decide whether making the most of the life they can have, given the circumstances, is better or worse than waiting to have the life they originally dreamt of, and may never have.”

But when a generation of people put off major life plans for a season, it creates anxiety or even resentment over not being able to have the meaningful life they aspire to, said Dr Mathew Mathews, a researcher who has written extensively on social issues in Singapore.

Some of this resentment will be directed at the rest of society and the Government for not stabilising the economy, which can be detrimental since the younger generations should feel confident about the years ahead, given that they are going to be the major drivers of the future, said the head of the Institute of Policy Studies’ Social Lab.

“Perhaps in seasons like this, people should evaluate what their bigger priorities are and what would probably be most meaningful," he added.

"For example, would it be more important to have a big wedding celebration and incur lots of debt, or to start off with a humble celebration and have enough to start a family?”

Mr Chua Hak Bin, regional co-head of macro research at Maybank, noted that the current generation of youths have likely not seen mortgage rates this high and will have to do their sums before committing to a property purchase.

“There is some risk of Singapore sliding into a recession in 2023 if the US Federal Reserve and other central banks continue to hike interest rates. Recessions can last for several quarters and the subsequent speed of recovery can be uncertain,” he said.

“Youths will have to brace for a more volatile and uncertain period, even if it means delaying big life commitments.”

OCBC Bank’s chief economist Selena Ling said that while an uncertain economic outlook definitely influences people's job stability and consumption patterns, it is questionable whether the economy is solely to be blamed for youths putting off marriages and having children.

“It may be tempting to say that young people holding off their life plans are due to financial considerations, but one structural driver has been changing mindsets of prioritising career versus getting married and starting a family, and this trend pre-dated the pandemic and the recent inflation bout,” said Ms Ling, who is also head of global treasury research and strategy at the bank.

But the fact that people are putting off life plans is a big deal for Singapore, said Prof Straughan, the sociologist.

With the country’s total fertility rate already so low, she added: “We should never allow external factors like these to become overly dramatic obstacles that would derail us from our life goals. Life is too precious especially in the area of marriage and parenthood.”

The concerns many people have about raising a child are often artificially inflated by expectations of the need to provide the child with the best education, when the most important thing is for the child to grow up happy and healthy, she said.

If finances are a concern, she advised young couples to think of all the resources they can tap, be it from parents or the Government’s strong support network for families.

“Knowing that there's community behind you makes the path not so daunting,” she added.

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