The Chaser Report - In Singapore Uni Students Get Houses

Episode Date: July 23, 2025

This special episode of The Chaser Report is brought to you from in transit. Join Charles and Dom as they call from ride-share vehicles across the world, to update you on how Singapore has solved the housing crisis in its own democratic way.---Listen AD FREE: https://thechaserreport.supercast.com/ VOTE OPTICS FOR A LOGIE: https://vote.tvweeklogies.com.au/Follow us on Instagram: @chaserwarSpam Dom's socials: @dom_knightSend Charles voicemails: @charlesfirthEmail us: [e-mail] CEO’s Super-yacht upgrade Fund: https://chaser.com.au/support/ Send complaints to: [e-mail] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Chaser Report is recorded on Gadigal Land. Striving for mediocrity in a world of excellence, this is The Chaser Report. Hello and welcome to The Chaser Report with Dom and Charles. We are so keen to be back in your feeds that we have found the literal only time today when we could both record something for you. And as it happens, Charles, we're both doing exactly the same thing, but in extremely different locations. Yes, I'm in glamorous and very exhaustive. Sydney, Australia. I don't know whether you've, have you ever been there, Dom?

I have, didn't you have the Olympics? Yes, yes, yes. I went to some of that. Yeah, I could only afford to go to the volleyball, but it was a great volleyball. I feel like Sydney's been living in the shadow of hosting the Olympics ever since. It's sort of a sort of hollow shell of a city now, day. Yeah, it was so the two weeks when the trains worked, if I recall. So you're, but you're in some sort of vehicle, aren't you? What are you in as we're in? Yeah, I'm in a taxi. Right, in a taxi? Do you remember those?

I do. It's like, it's like Uber, but without having to have an app. It's quite good. Yeah, that's sort of old school. I like that. Well, because that happens, just through total coincidence, I am also in, not an Uber, not in a taxi, but in a grab, in a grab. What's a grab?

A grab is, it's a verb that in the Republic of Singapore is a noun, a noun meaning an app that lets you book cars exactly like Uber. In fact, they bought out Uber. Uber fail. here and grabs a local company that you can use to, you know, book order food and all that kind of stuff. So I'm in Singapore. Not only am I in Singapore, Charles, but I'm heading from the place I was staying to a football

game between Arsenal and A.C. Milan. So I'm very excited to go to this. Entirely randomly, my favourite team is playing A.C. Milan. So I'm in this car in the very, very efficient Republic of Singapore. It's worked very well. The app sorted itself out. and I should be there just in time. I'm catching a train.

I'm catching the grab to their very rapid metro system, the MRT, a bit like the Sydney metro system, except it's everywhere, and I'll get there just in time for kick off, I think. So, yeah, it's a public transport. Well, it's the only, no, it's a transport-themed episode of the Chase Report. Let's just have some ads, and then we can talk about whatever we're going to talk about. Lovely. And Charles, I don't know what we're talking about,

apart from the fact that we both happen through cosmic coincidence to be in showford vehicles. Where are you, what were you doing? You were doing some sort of glamorous gig, though, weren't you? In your move, it's much more fancy than mine. Not just Sydney. I've been in Shepardon. Shepardin, no way. Yeah, in regional Victoria.

SPC baked beans and spaghetti. It's sort of the Perth of regional Victoria, I'd say. Wow, that's a big rap. Yeah, yeah. And just what I did this morning, after I did a gig last night, And this morning, we went to the local art museum, as you do. Sure. As you do.

I know you did everywhere you go. And guess what was on there? There was a Brett Whiteley exhibition. Like, four rooms of really famous Brett Whiteley's. So, you know, in Shepperton. Yeah, in Shepperton. Okay. Gosh.

Yeah. All right. Well, that sounds far more random than anything I can muster, despite being in a completely different country. Yeah, okay. We should talk about the news. I think people tune to this podcast, not just to hear our glamorous stories of swineing it around Shepperton. I mean, frankly, I'll tell you one thing I saw in the news here that I want to look more deeply into, by the way, that I just think is fascinating before we get into the actual news.

I saw a headline saying that they're about to announce a new scheme for housing whereby, and I don't understand how the details work, because it's all full of acronyms and systems that I don't understand. But basically, university students can get a house. Wow. I'm not even talking about young people with a job. And the trick with it is they've got to put themselves down on a list. But basically you get put on the list and a few years later, you get a house from the HTAB, the Housing Development Board here in Singapore,

which builds 70% of the country's housing. And is this a way to settle students with more debt? Like, is it being used as a way to sort of create crippling hex debt on local Singaporean students or something? I don't think so. And there must be some sort of sting in the tail. So the deal with it is, I believe, and I'll have to check the details on this again, is that basically you put your name down now.

And it's only if you're in a couple. So there's a little bit of traditional Singaporean sort of family values. But if you're in a couple, you put your name down and they'll assess your finances at the time you actually get the property in a few years' time. You don't have to have the thing now. So they're basically going, when you've got a graduate job, or, sort you out. And it's got, you can actually borrow money from the House Development Board.

You don't have to go to the bank. So it's almost as though, Charles, yeah. We don't, the democracy is a bad idea. Is that where you're going with you? It's almost as though the objective is to actually just get people into homes. Yeah, right. Kind of almost as like a sort of civic right or something. Because there is a huge problem with that plan, which is that no boomer makes any money

out of that plan. No, that's right. No, but the boomers don't need to because they have themselves. almost all them have made a vast amount of money because what they do with public housing here is that you're allowed to sell it. So you've got to live in it for, I think it's 10 years or something, but then down the track, you can sell it.

And of course, property in Singapore has boomed. So one of my friends explained to me that your average person who runs a hawker stand or drives a taxi or whatever, possibly a grab, has a very valuable property because they just got one and then it got transferred into their name eventually. And so it's a country of housing millionaires, which is pretty cool.

Well, which is like Australia. The great thing is I can't get my driver's not going to fact check the, he's busy doing a turn. But then, then, Dom, the other advantage I see to this scheme, I think we should immediately abandon democracy in England in this scheme. But the other advantage I see is while you're still at university, it provides a great pickup line, which is, you want to go out with me, that way we can apply to get, you know, a house. Yeah.

And it also, imagine that at parties, everyone would be hooking up. And people all settle down with their kind of first university, first date, basically. And a lot of people I know, Charles, I won't mention present company, but a lot of people I know actually ended up marrying and having families with their kind of university relationship. I didn't do that. I did. Yeah. So you would have got the age TB very early on.

You've got the house. Now, as to the political system, I couldn't possibly comment on that, Charles. but some would disagree with your characterisation, and that's something I'm sticking to, particularly while in this geographical region. So, yes, it's a system, but it's a system that clearly has a lot going for it. I mean, let's be one.

Outcome-wise, there's some good stuff. I think what you need to do, Don, is right up beside you when you get back, especially the part about, you know, abandoning democracy. But, you know, the housing, like, that's good, because Jim Chalmers is having his little, productivity roundtable in August, write it up in time for that. And then that means that your entire holiday can be tax deductible.

Oh, that's genius. It was a research tree. No, but Charles, this episode is making it tax deductible. This conversation is sufficient. Because don't you work at university. You don't work at UNSW, do. No. Because, oh, no, it's UTS, wasn't it?

UTS. Did you see the story today where they sent a few executives off on a fact-finding mission. Yeah, the lavish, lavish trip. $140,000 for 10-day trip. Yeah, fact-finding mission to the U.S. While they're making vast numbers of academics redundant, yes, I did see that story. So is that what's going on with you in Singapore? Are you on some sort of lavish university-funded? No, I'm on an almost entirely self-funding trip to a conference, that's what I'm doing. But no, no, there's nothing glamorous about it. But this conversation does make the trip tax deductible. So, yeah, I should just say how wonderful the system is and what a great thing

it is. But we'll look more into it later. The Chaser Report, less news, more often. But no, it's true. This is the time for big transformative ideas to solve the economy. Charles, I challenge you to come up with a couple for our weekend episode. Well, yes, no, I will. For our weekend episode, which people have to pay for, I'll have all the answers by then. Of course. Yeah.

But look, I'll tell you. something really bad, Dom, about Sydney, is that they build all these very efficient road tunnels. Oh, yes. And I'm just going to turn left here. I know. It's your home. We didn't even get to the news. Is that what's happening?

Yeah, because it's now, like, literally, like, I, of course, like any nimbly, you know, lefty living in the inner city opposed or the construction of the... You were very anti-Westkenets, weren't you? I remember. Oh, yeah. Not on my watch. They were bulldozing homes. In fact, we had a hold of West Connecticut's refugees move in on our street because they literally

got rid of hundreds of houses. But anyway, yeah, it's so efficient that my taxi fare is basically over. That's amazing. Because it's so quick. So we didn't get to the news. As soon as, you know, it's got a very fast trip for the airport. Isn't they good? But Charles, the good news is we did at least tangentially make it about the news because

you mentioned Jim Chalmers as a summit. So even though there's absolutely nothing of substance in the entire episode, sorry everyone. I'm always at the MRT station too, actually. I think the housing, that's what this episode's called. This is Dom solves the housing problem by abolishing democracy. Maybe not quite in those terms. Let's just say the, let's just say in Singapore or uni shouldn't get houses. That's a pretty good, that's a pretty good name for it.

They really? I'm still enrolled at uni. Do you think I should move here and get a house? I'd like get a house on that deal. Yes, you are, and you've got, you've got someone who'll go out with you. So that's perfect. That is an amazing deal. I'm not a citizen though.

And I think that's easily solved. And also, don't they have a thing where if you move to Singapore, you get first 10 years tax free or something? Quite possibly, although they've changed it. Apparently they've, um, they've wound back some of the tax things. We move the chaser to Singapore. Actually that? You, you manage the chaser.

The chaser doesn't have to pay tax. Let's do this, Charles. If anyone listening has a great idea for which tax haven we should move the Chaser to, possibly in the Middle East, because the free speech mission would have worked so well there. Podcast at Chaser.com today. You will see if you can get a bid from different regimes. What about the Seychelles? And then we adjust our level of dissidents based on how, you know, like it could be called pro-government chaser if we moved to Singapore. And we could talk about how efficient authoritarianism is.

It absolutely is. Yeah, yeah. It's the democracy. Maybe this podcast gets results. The episode is the first example of our Craven sort of thing. Well, I must say, the transports worked very efficiently both ends in this podcast. So I actually have to get out of mind too now. So it's been lovely chatting.

I'll see you back home in Sydney. If after this is published, I'm allowed out of the country. Okay. See you know. Bye. We're part of the iconoclus network. Catch you later.