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Singapore has developed its own unique state-driven housing system, with more than three quarters of its housing stock built by the Housing and Development Board and homeownership financed through Central Provident Fund savings. As a result, it has one of the highest homeownership rates amongst market economies. This paper provides a historical perspective of the main housing problems faced by successive prime ministers and their respective policy responses. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew (1959–1990), the government established an integrated land-housing supply and housing finance framework to channel much needed resources into the housing sector to deal with a chronic housing shortage. Under Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong (1990–2004), asset enhancement schemes to renew aging estates as well as market deregulation measures were implemented. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (2004–present) has been confronted with a different set of challenges — investment demand for housing, rising inequalities and rapidly aging population. These problems have brought about the introduction of carefully crafted macroprudential policies, targeted housing grants to assist low and middle income households, and schemes to help elderly households monetize their housing equity.

In response to the recent housing finance shortage in Saudi Arabia, many solutions have been suggested. Levying taxes on the ownership of undeveloped and extensive lands is one of them. This is because the increase in land prices in recent years has affected the total housing cost, which in turn has impacted on the process of obtaining housing finance. The current picture of lending shows that lenders, including banks, do not lend enough money to enable the borrower to buy a home, given the high cost of housing. As a result, people have avoided borrowing. Therefore, the main purpose of the suggestion to levy taxes on land is to reduce land prices (by encouraging landowners to sell), which will lead to reduced housing costs, so that the latter will be proportional to the loans provided by banks. Thus borrowers will be able to afford to buy houses, and housing finance will be stimulated. However, approval of this suggestion has faced some legal obstacles. They consist of two questions: are constitutional limitations accommodated in this suggestion, and does a tax levy comply with Islamic law, which is considered the main source of the Saudi legal system? The paper found that the suggestion needs to be adjusted to comply with constitutional limitations. Also, it found that the second question has been answered by the Council of Senior Ulama (CSU), which expressly stated that imposing tax does not comply with Islamic law. Therefore, a moderated suggestion is offered by this paper: instead of levying taxes, impose zakat, or zakah, which is an Islamic instrument. The paper found that zakat will play the same role as taxation and is accepted by both believers and Muslim scholars. However, zakat cannot be applied in the case of lands owned by non-Muslims, who are not subject to this instrument. This issue has been addressed by the following proposal: impose taxes on lands owned by non-Muslims and zakat on lands owned by Muslims.