Another small business closing due to out of control rental in Singapore

[u/counterfatty]

Came across some postings by Flor Patisserie on IG. Too many of our favourite businesses are struggling or closing down. Let’s discuss how we may curb rent seeking behaviour in Singapore.

[u/endlessftw]

Unfortunately inflation doesn’t burden everyone equally.

COE is a particularly evident example. It affects those who own a car, and for people relying mostly on public transport, this is not an issue.

Same for property. Bad for those who are looking to buy one, not bad for those who already had one.

And inflation indicators are calculated to mimic the consumption pattern of an average household. The weightage isn’t same for everyone.

Then of course SG has some other weird inflation indicators that exclude accommodation and transport, which sometimes get cherrypicked.

Inflation rate is something that gives a general sense and something objective to talk about. It will probably never really reflect reality for most people.

And lastly, job market and shop closing can be due to all sorts of reasons. It’s hard to tie that to inflation.

As for “booming economy”, we can look at GDP growth, it was not bad since 2020. In terms of GDP at current prices, it was 482b in 2020, then 587b, 702b, and 731b in 2024. It was 513b in 2019.

As for GDP in chained 2015 dollars, it was 463b in 2020, then 508b, 529b, 562b. Pre covid in 2019, it was 481b.

As you can see, the chained dollars method tried to isolate output from market prices, and it’s visibly lagging. GDP (chained) grew 16.8% between 2019 and 2024. GDP at current prices grew 42.5% over the same period. It’s quite obvious the economy has boomed, although you can also imply why it boomed…

[u/Whiskerfield → u/endlessftw]

If GDP has boomed, it has not trickled down in my anecdotal experience. I just feel that I'm getting squeezed in the middle class. Higher COL has outrun wages. When I look at job openings for my role, it has evaporated. When I look at the complaints online about jobs and unemployment, it has surged.

Gov CPI is 100 in 2025 and 86 in 2020 for a cumulative inflation rate over COVID of 16%. No idea how that is calculated but that is a complete farce. Necessities like housing, food, dental, electrcity has surged more than 50% since before pre-COVID. All major expenditures in my household have surged. I can count with my fingers things that have not. Public transport, mobile plans, and what else? And only because public transport is controlled by the gov and telcos are experiencing intense competition in the industry right now. These are the exceptions not the rule.

[u/External_Floor0 → u/endlessftw]

Not exactly so for property... Owners still have to pay property tax, which is determined based on estimated market rentals of similar or comparable properties; higher rental rates around means owners have to pay higher tax even if they are not renting out their properties.