How expensive Singapore protected it's middle class

Opinion
13 May 2026 • 3:00 PM MYT
How expensive Singapore protected it's middle class

Singapore is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

But unlike some global cities…
most locals still live inside it.

Not because it’s cheap.

But because Singapore made a very specific choice:
protect living space for locals…
and make other things expensive instead.

In Hong Kong, people adjust by living smaller.
In Monaco, people adjust by living somewhere else.

Singapore adjusted everything else instead.