How did Singapore achieve a home ownership rate of 90 per cent? Can Australia learn anything from it?

Singapore has a home ownership rate of 90 per cent .

It has a tiny land mass, so the dominant housing type is high density flats, the majority of which are built by the country's Housing Development Board .

The country also has a compulsory savings system, similar to Australia 's compulsory superannuation, but it's used very differently.

Singaporean economist Sock-Yong Phang , a globally renowned housing economist, was in Melbourne last week .

Winston Churchill famously referred to land ownership as "the mother of all monopolies" Professor Goodhart said introducing a land tax in the UK today would be the "initial transition from the status quo" Professor Phang said Singapore 's housing policies had to be understood in the context of its very small land area.

Singapore 's land scarcity explains land and housing solutions that will appear drastic for other countries, she said.

The HDB 's building program led to a rapid increase in home ownership rates in the 1970s and 1980s , from 30 per cent to 90 per cent , where it has stayed ever since.

The highest Australia has achieved is just over 70 per cent.

Professor Phang says despite its small size, Singapore has thrived economically.