Finding solutions can't happen in our current governmental status

Three topics about Hong Kong written about most often are its comparison with Singapore, high property prices and democracy.

Singapore is an exemplary city; by contrast, Hong Kong will keep having policy failures until we see improvements.

Hong Kong may have skyscrapers, tycoons, bridges and infrastructure that match Singapore's, but it trails in basic livelihood issues such as housing, education, health care, retirement schemes, social mobility, and care for the poor and elderly.

Housing is Hong Kong's biggest policy failure. In his 2013 national day speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong explicitly "guaranteed" any Singaporean household earning S$1,000 (HK$5,900) per month a two-bedroom flat and earning S$2,000 a three-bedroom flat. With a home-ownership rate above 90 per cent, more than three of four Singaporeans own at least a three-bedroom flat.

Singapore uses housing as a means of distribution, promoting stability; in Hong Kong, it's a means of persecution, creating social disharmony.

While 80 per cent of houses in Singapore are built by its Housing Development Board, developers and businesses here continue professing "free market principles" and non-interference by the government. Instead, the government should take over all new housing developments until there's enough affordable housing.