40 yrs ago, spore was still a developing country with a huge potential growth like China today. Especially in the first 30 yrs, spore enjoyed many years of double-digit growth. So HDB price increases in tandem with spore economic growth, with ups and downs in between. Hence, a 40-yr old Queenstown flat many times today. What people must know is that Spore is now a developed country and a growth of 4%-6% is considered very good. Now, with the recession deepening and the recovery likely to be long and weak, we may see years of 1%-2% growth. So you can only expect your HDB flat to appreciate by that much going forward. It's the HDB flats that are priced according to the mass's affordability. Clearly, private property at current price will have a long way to adjust downward to meet the affordability of the average household esp with the credit crunch biting so hard and retrenchment is yet to see the worst