Housing programmes of the Singapore government
Public housing in Singapore is subsidised, built, and managed by the government of Singapore. Starting in the 1930s, the country's first public housing was built by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in a similar fashion to contemporaneous British public housing projects, and housing for the resettlement of squatters was built from the late 1950s. In the 1960s under the SIT's successor, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), public housing consisting of small units with basic amenities was constructed as quickly and cheaply as possible at high densities and used for resettlement schemes. From the late 1960s, housing programmes focused more on quality, public housing was built in new towns, and a scheme allowing residents to lease their flats was introduced. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, more public housing options were provided for the middle class and efforts to increase community cohesion within housing estates were made. From the 1990s, the government began portraying public housing as an asset, introducing large-scale upgrading schemes and loosening regulations on the resale of public housing while additional housing programmes for the sandwich classes and elderly residents were introduced. Rising housing prices led to public housing being seen as an investment from the 2000s, and new technologies and eco-friendly features were incorporated into housing estates.
In the early 2020s, Singapore's public housing is located in new towns, in communities that are intended to be self-contained, with services nearby housing blocks, and is either owned by or rented to residents. Lessee-occupied public housing is sold on a 99-year lease and can be sold on the private resale market under certain restrictions. Rental housing consists of smaller units and is mainly meant for lower-income households. Housing grants are provided to lower-income applicants for flat purchases while flats with shorter leases and lease monetisation schemes have been implemented for elderly homeowners. Housing estates are managed and maintained by town Councils, and older housing estates are improved by the Housing and Development Board under the Estate Renewal Strategy.
As of 2020, 78.7% of Singapore residents live in public housing, down from a high of 88.0% in 2000.
History.
Under the Singapore Improvement Trust.
During British colonial rule, Singapore had an underdeveloped housing infrastructure that led to overcrowding and poor living conditions once it experienced an uptick in immigration. Model public housing was first built in Singapore by the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) from the late 1920s. Intended to house people displaced by the clearance of unsanitary buildings or by town improvement schemes, the SIT's initial housing schemes were small in scale but well received. From the early 1930s, the SIT subsequently started planning larger housing estates on the outskirts of the Central Area, and after being unable to encourage the private development of such estates, constructed the first estate, Tiong Bahru, from 1936. Subsequently, the SIT began focusing more on public housing provision from the late 1940s. The public housing built by the SIT was similar in terms of density and living space to British public housing projects of the time, with low population densities, and housed nine per cent of Singapore's population by 1959.
Emergency housing and resettlement schemes.
After the Second World War, Singapore experienced a significant influx of immigrants, many of whom settled in urban kampongs at the edge of the Central Area. Consisting of wooden houses built over empty plots, swamps and old cemeteries, these kampongs expanded rapidly through the 1950s, housing a quarter of Singapore's urban population by the early 1960s. The kampongs largely functioned as autonomous areas, with many residents taking up jobs in the informal economy or joining secret societies, which provided security within the kampongs. This autonomy led to the colonial government perceiving the kampongs as socially undesirable areas, and as a "margin" that they had little authority over and which had to be cleared and replaced with public housing.
In addition, the closely spaced wooden houses in urban kampongs made these areas highly susceptible to fire, and such fires broke out frequently and displaced many residents. The British colonial authorities saw these fires as opportunities to integrate displaced kampong dwellers into formal society by rehousing them in formal housing, but were initially unable to convince the SIT to build such housing over financial sustainability concerns.
Subsequently, in 1953, as the flats it usually built were proving expensive to construct, the SIT reluctantly started constructing emergency housing for displaced kampong dwellers, but the housing were poorly received so the SIT scaled back construction two years later.
By the late 1950s, the issue of rehousing urban kampong residents in formal housing had become highly politicised, so the Labour Front government adopted a clear emergency housing strategy. After fires at Kampong Koo Chye and Kampong Tiong Bahru, the government took over the fire sites and instructed the SIT to build flats on them. The SIT also envisioned a resettlement plan in Kampong Tiong Bahru after the fire, acquiring additional land for emergency flats and renting out the flats to the kampong dwellers. These schemes were also poorly received by the displaced kampong residents.
The SIT faced multiple issues in its provision of public housing; rents for SIT flats were unaffordable for most of the local population and too low to be financially sustainable for the SIT, and by 1949, new flats were not being built quickly enough to keep up with the increase in population in Singapore. By 1958, the SIT was unable to financially sustain its public housing programme and delays in approval of new housing projects slowed construction even further.
The People's Action Party government that subsequently came into power in 1959 held similar views on housing and the kampongs as the colonial government. Consequently, plans to replace the SIT with a new housing authority were drawn up in the late 1950s, and in February 1960, it was replaced with the Housing and Development Board (HDB). The HDB announced a five-year housing plan with high aspirations and continued the SIT's emergency housing programme from November 1960, adopting a strategy of building one-room flats for resettlement schemes. In May 1961, in the aftermath of a subsequent fire in Bukit Ho Swee, the government immediately took over the fire site, set aside most of the emergency flats in Kampong Tiong Bahru for the rehousing of displaced kampong dwellers, and developed a housing estate on the site of the kampong that was completed between 1963 and 1965. The Bukit Ho Swee estate was used to rehouse other kampong residents displaced by fires or development schemes, paving the way for further urban renewal and resettlement schemes in the Central Area. By 1965, more than 50,000 flats had been constructed and 23% of Singapore's population lived in public housing.
In the 1960s, the HDB's housing was intended to be built as quickly and cheaply as possible, and consisted mainly of one- and two-room flats. These were built at high densities to make the most of the limited land available for public housing. Housing estates built during this period had limited amenities; they were built at the edge of the Central Area, whose facilities and services residents relied on.
Through the development of public housing, the government attempted to change the behaviour of the kampong residents with prohibitions on modifying or subletting flats, and to have more control over them. The government intended to build harmony between Singapore's racial groups; the new housing estates had no racial distinctions, unlike the settlements that preceded them. In addition, the design of housing units brought about a shift away from larger family structures towards nuclear families, while Riaz Hassan noted that since the design of public housing inhibited communication between neighbours, there was a lack of community and social cohesion within housing blocks and estates. Nevertheless, the intended residents resisted the resettlement schemes and many residents loathed the one-room emergency flats. The government attempted to provide housing to all people and organisations affected by the schemes. The HDB shifted away from constructing one-room flats from the late 1960s.
Development of new towns.
In 1964, a home leasehold ownership scheme was introduced but it was poorly received at first because most public housing residents were unable to afford the flats. Applicants could use their contributions from the Central Provident Fund (CPF), a compulsory savings scheme, to pay for their flats from 1968, and by 1984, 62 percent of flats were owned.
The HDB started constructing its first new town in 1965; it was located about from the city centre, and had a town centre with amenities and industrial areas to provide employment to residents. From the late 1960s, the HDB began focusing on the quality of public housing, building larger flats and providing more amenities in housing estates. In addition, the 1966 Land Acquisition Act gave the government broad powers to take over land and made more land available for public housing.
From the 1970s, public housing was constructed further away from the Central Area, more amenities were provided in new towns and flat sizes continued to increase. Owners were allowed to sell their flats on the resale market from 1971, and from the mid-1970s, the designs of public housing developments became more diverse. To provide flats for middle-class residents, who at the time could not afford to purchase housing built by private developers and were ineligible for flats built by the HDB, the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) was set up in 1974. The HUDC's housing estates had layouts similar to those of private condominiums, and were initially well received. In addition, flats were built by the Jurong Town Corporation in Jurong and Sembawang between 1968 and 1982.
In the late 1970s, in an attempt to build a sense of community within housing estates, Residents' Communities and the precinct concept were introduced. Rising construction costs during this period resulted in designs again becoming more uniform and from the early 1980s, housing construction started incorporating more prefabricated sections to reduce costs. The 1980s saw the introduction of larger executive flats while the HDB, which took over the HUDC in 1982, stopped construction of the middle class flats that had been constructed by the HUDC as the prices of these flats were approaching those of housing built by private developers, while the raising of income ceilings for the HDB's lower-end flats made the middle class eligible for these flats. In the light of falling demand for smaller flats, those in older housing estates were enlarged while older housing blocks that did not meet the HDB's standards were torn down. Flat modification regulations were relaxed and housing estates were upgraded on an "ad hoc" basis.
To ensure people of different races were evenly distributed across public housing estates, a limit on Malay residents was introduced for new flats. This proved insufficient to prevent the formation of racial enclaves so in 1989, the limits were extended to all races and also to the resale market.
Upgrading schemes and new housing programmes.
From the 1990s, the Singapore government started portraying public housing as an asset and as a useful tool for safeguarding retirement. The government pursued measures for upgrading and "asset enhancement", and loosened restrictions on the public housing resale market. The first of these schemes, a large-scale, S$ upgrading scheme, was announced in 1989. The scheme's aim was intended to make older housing estates more attractive to younger people, and included the creation of differentiated precincts, the provision of more amenities, and upgrades to blocks and flats. town councils and residents were able to determine the nature and extent of the upgrades to their estates. After a trial on vacant housing blocks and a demonstration phase on selected blocks, the scheme was initiated in 1993.
A less-extensive interim upgrading programme was carried out in newer estates and several town councils carried out their lease amenity-upgrading schemes. In 1995, the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme to redevelop selected housing blocks in older estates was introduced. These upgrading schemes were subsequently used for political ends; politicians from the ruling People's Action Party stated estates with higher proportions of votes for the ruling party would be prioritised for upgrading schemes.
Besides the upgrading programmes, additional housing schemes were introduced in the 1990s. These included executive condominiums with similar amenities to private condominiums for the sandwich class, along with Design Plus and Design and Build flats, which had higher-quality fittings and designs, and were designed with feedback from private architects. Design and Build flats