Singapore’s Housing Miracle
Close to 90% of Singaporeans live in their own homes.
On my recent trip to Singapore I was amazed at the 2021 statistics which showed that 88.9 % of Singaporeans live in their own home. This is despite the fact that Singapore has the most expensive real estate in the world. How is this possible and how did it come about?
Let’s go back to 1960 when many people in Singapore were living in unhygienic conditions and crowded squatter settlements. Back then only 9% of Singaporeans lived in government flats and the rest could only dream about living in their own home. To remedy this housing crisis, Singapore set up the Housing Development Board (HDB) in 1960. In three years the HDB built 21,000 flats and two years later there were 54,000 flats. Within a period of ten years the HDB was able to resolve the housing crisis in Singapore.
The HDB was not working in the dark but with a sharp policy and strategy that focused on three fundamentals. (1) The HDB was the sole agency in charge of public housing and as such was able to negotiate and secure land, resources and manpower to concentrate on their task with the benefit of huge economies of scale. (2) They believed in a total approach to housing that covered planning, design, construction and post build maintenance. They understood the importance of neighborhoods and the…
