Be More Like Singapore, Chris
*The Kiwi Dialectic — Pissed Off Socialist*
Christopher Luxon flew to Singapore in May 2026. Signed a deal. Shook hands. Came home.
Then he got on Newstalk ZB and told Mike Hosking we have “serious work to do on our infrastructure compared to Singapore”.
He told us to look at Singapore.
He looks at Singapore.
He looks at Finland.
He holds Singapore up like a report card.
Like we’re the slow kid in class
and Singapore’s the one who got it right.
What Chris Knows About Singapore
Singapore is clean. Singapore is fast. Singapore does business. Singapore doesn’t mess around.
Chris knows this.
Chris likes this.
Chris wants us to be more like this.
What Chris Doesn’t Mention
The Singaporean state owns 90 percent of the country’s land.
Every time Luxon says “look at Singapore” — he’s pointing at one of the most interventionist land ownership models on the planet.
In 1949, Singapore’s government owned 31 percent of the land. Ordinary people owned the rest.
Then the state started buying it.
Not asking.
*Buying* — at prices the government set
What Americans call eminent domain. What the rest of us call: the government takes your land.
Decade by decade, the state accumulated.
By the 1980s it had the biggest land ownership in Singapore — over 76 percent.[8]
Today: 90 percent.
The “Homeownership” Trick
Here’s the part that gets funnier.
Singapore has a 90 percent homeownership rate. Everyone talks about it. Luxon types love it. *Look at their property-owning democracy.
But what Singaporeans own is a 99-year lease.
Not the land.
Not ever the land.
After 99 years, it reverts to the state.
Your kids might own the lease. Your grandkids might own the lease. Your great-grandkids get nothing — the state takes it back.
That’s not homeownership. That’s a very long rental agreement with good branding.
The Numbers, Plain
- 90% of Singapore’s land: state-owned[5][9]
- 80% of Singaporeans: live in housing built by the HDB — the government housing corporation[11][12]
- 77% of residents: still live in that public housing today[12]
- 99 years: length of the “ownership” lease before the land reverts to the Crown[6]
- 0: the number of times Luxon mentioned any of this
The NZ Initiative Agrees (Sort Of)
Even the NZ Initiative — the right-wing think tank that loves Luxon’s Singapore comparisons — wrote a piece asking whether turning New Zealand into Singapore means adopting its housing model.[13]
It’s the question they had to ask.
Because the model doesn’t work the other way around.
You can’t have Singapore’s outcomes without Singapore’s methods.
And Singapore’s method is: the state owns the land, the state builds the housing, and the state decides what you can do with it.
That’s not the free market.
That’s not property rights.
That’s closer to what Luxon would call socialism — if he found it in the wrong country.
What This Tells Us
When Chris Luxon says “be more like Singapore,” he means:
low corporate tax,
fast infrastructure,
a business-friendly environment.
He means the Singapore that appears in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business index.
He does not mean the Singapore where the government owns 90 percent of the land.[6]
He does not mean the Singapore where the state built and still manages most of the housing stock.
He does not mean the Singapore where “owning your home” means holding a century-long lease from the government.
He wants the aesthetics of Singapore without the politics.
He wants the efficiency of state planning with none of the state.
And nobody — not one journalist, not one press conference question — has made him explain the contradiction.
Singapore Is a Real Priority for New Zealand
That’s what he said before the trip.
*Singapore is a real priority.*
Yeah. We can see that.
A country where the government owns the land, builds the houses, and controls the leases.
A real priority.
For a man who tells us property rights are sacred.