Public Housing in Singapore

The Government set up the Housing and Development Board [HDB] which will be responsible for public housing.

Problems faced & solutions to them:

Widespread Poverty; Rapid population growth and Growth of slums and squatters in the city area; Bukit Ho Swee Fire
-To tackle the grave problem, of housing shortage the HDB set up the First Five-Year Building Scheme so as to build as many affordable housing as possible within the shortest period of time.

Congestion in city area
-The land Aquisition Act was also implemented so that the government could acquire land from land owners and compensate them. Self-contained towns are built with facilities to meet the basic needs of the citizens so as to reduce preferance for housing within the city area.

Limited Land
-Because Singapore has limited land, land use is maximised by building high-rise and high-density flats.

Lack of Sense of Pride and Belonging
The government encourages home ownership of the citizens by implementing policies by allowing citizens to pay for the flats in monthly instalments and later, by allowing them to make use of their CPF savings to pay for their flats. This gives singaporean a stake in the country, thus inculcating a sense of pride and belonging for the nation.

Lack of Social Cohesion
To bring the different races together, the policy of ethnic quota was introduced to limit a proportion of each race in each neighbourhood. Community centres are built and precinct concepts are also designed for each self-contained town so as to interaction among the different racial groups.

To promote interaction among the different income groups, a mix of smaller and larger flats are built in every new town so as to reduce the social discrimination and encourage communication.

To promote community spirit, RCs, Town Councils are set up to have a better understanding of various community problems and ways to solve them, fostering stronger community ties.

Thriving economy causes middle income groups to be unable to qualify for HDB flats
As the standard of living increases due to the thriving economy that increased the affluency of the citizens, the HDB raised the maximum income for home ownership several times to cater to the Middle-income groups. HUDC was formed to provide housing for the middle income group.

Desire to own private property at affordable prices
The Executive Condominium Housing Scheme was implemented whereby executive condominiums are located in HDB estates to meet the needs of the people to have a higher standard of living.

Singles have increased; and they want to own HDB flats too
HDB now allows singles of at least 35 years of age to buy resale houses with the aid of their CPF housing grants.

Ageing population-more Senior Citizens wans to live on their own but in close touch with children
Studio apartments for the senior citizens are built within existing estates with non-slip floorings and pull-cords to meet the needs of the Senior Citizens.

The need to renew older estates
The Estate Renewal Strategy was implemented to prevent old estates from deteriorating so as to keep the outlook of the town nice as always.