Why Singapore has become my favorite city in the world
On our 3 month trip to Europe and Asia, we had the chance to visit Singapore for 4 days. Before this, I didn’t know much about the country besides the fact that it's a tiny city-state and a financial center in Asia. My trip to Singapore really excited the inner urban planner nerd in me, I was able to witness many brilliant city planning ideas and observe how they work in practice. While there, we met up with a couple working in Singapore and also took an HDB (Housing Development Board) tour to see the story of public housing in Singapore. Getting some local perspectives to complement my own online research really painted a more vivid picture of how the system works in Singapore. For once, I was able to witness how a competent, data-driven, efficient, and non-corrupt government can really improve people’s lives for the better.
Transporation
Singapore’s public transit system is one of the most efficient, sustainable, and convenient systems I have ever used (only Japan comes close). Its combination of subway and buses can get you pretty up anywhere on the island in less than an hour. Distance is irrelevant as long as you can get from A to B in a reasonable amount of time. All the trains and buses we took were frequent, reliable, and live tracked on Google Maps to provide realtime updates. Singapore’s Ministry of Transport has an aggressive 2040 goal to achieve ‘45-minute city, 20-minute towns’. Meaning residents should be able to get anywhere within the city in 45 mins and 20 mins within a town. This might sound easy given the small size of Singapore, but Singapore actually has a physical size roughly the same as NYC, if I was able to get anywhere from A to B within NYC, I would be absolutely thrilled!
In addition to public transit, the city also has lots of bike lanes, covered walkways, and scooter parking to encourage more active and sustainable modes of transport. The city uses data collected from the Ez-link transit cards to optimize subway and bus routes and frequency, as well as finding new ways to improve the system.
Singapore has an infamous policy that makes owning a vehicle cost-prohibitive. In order to own a car, you must auction for the right to own a car license, which can cost from $40K-60k+ depending on current demand. This license is good for 10 years and will need to be renewed at the market price once expired, making car ownership a luxury in Singapore. The reason for the high cost is because the government wants a zero net change in vehicle numbers, currently standing at ~1 million. This might sound outrageous coming from the U.S where car ownership is a necessity for many parts of the country, but it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about its implications on society as a whole. Because Singapore is so land constrained, its road infrastructure cannot scale if everyone chooses to drive. If every family owned a car, there would be constant gridlock and parking would be impossible to find. Of course, this is only possible because public transit is so good and affordable that driving really isn’t necessary. Using a combination of congestion tax and limiting the total number of cars, there is literally no traffic in Singapore! Compare this to Los Angeles, where the uncontrolled personal-car dominance has resulted in notoriously horrible traffic and low-density urban sprawl and rendered public transit ineffective.
Cities are built for people, so let's give more space back to pedestrians and bikers instead of letting cars rule the needs and landscape of our cities.
Housing
Singapore has a very interesting housing story that started after its independence from the British in 1959. At the time, there was a severe housing shortage and over 250,000 people lived in squalid shophouses. The People’s Action Party promised to fix the housing shortage and was elected into power. Amazingly, the political party actually kept its promise and fulfilled what it promised the public. The Housing and Development Board (HDB) was formed to fix the severe housing shortage. In the span of 10 years, 147,000 housing units were built, alleviating the housing crisis. The role of HDB continues to this day, where it provides over 80% of Singaporeans with affordable housing units in well designed and self-contained towns.
When I think of public housing, I always picture swathes of drab, characterize-less, and dirty looking buildings usually located in bad neighborhoods. Singapore proves public housing doesn’t have to be this way when envisioned, designed, and built but very competent people that grade themselves in quality of life and livability as much as pure housing units constructed. It is no wonder that Singapore is ranked as the most livable city in Asia. Public housing is built as communities with a host of localized amenities and services such as community centers, elder care facilities, childcare centers, recreational spaces, hawker centers, convenience stores, wet markets, community gardens, playgrounds, and even swimming pools. The best type of commute is no commute at all; when the majority of your daily needs are met within your housing development, the need to travel is dramatically reduced, saving both time and carbon footprint.
During my trip to Singapore, I had a chance to visit a new town currently under development, called Punggol, to get a feel of what it would feel like to live there. I was thoroughly impressed by how nice it was. Each area in the town shares a whole host of amenities that satisfy most of their daily needs. From amazing food, shopping, parks, to health care, almost everything is easily accessible for all housing units. Convenient and frequent autonomous monorail loops bring residents to the closest MRT station where they can access the rest of the city via subway.
The HDB is always forward-looking and it incorporates the latest principals, designs, and technology when designing new townships. Tengah, Singapore’s next HDB town development, will feature the first “car-free” town center and will allow residents to get up close to nature. Tengah will be comprised of 5 districts, each having a facet of the town’s identity. For example, Plantation District will have a community farm way running through its housing precincts. Instead of having car roads cannibalizing most of the surface space, roads in Tengah will be built underground to give space back to residents.
Now that I have raved enough about the quality and attractiveness of public housing developments in Singapore, let's talk about cost, having amazing housing won’t matter if nobody can actually afford them. While private development condos are definitely not cheap, residents can buy housing units from the HDB directly at a much more subsidized rate. I was told the median cost of a 1BR flat is ~S$100K, 2BR: ~S$200K, 3BR: ~S$300K. Given the median income in Singapore is ~$67K, this means HDB flats are incredibly affordable for the average residents. Local residents are allowed to buy a maximum of 2 flats from the HDB in their lifetime, there is typically a waiting period of 3–4 years because only buildings that has been 70% sold will be constructed to keep supply and demand in check. There is also a minimum occupancy period of 5 years before owners are allowed to sell their flat back on the open market, typically for significantly more than they paid for it. The government believes homeownership would increase citizens’ personal stake in the country and strengthen their tie to Singapore. As a result, the government keeps flats very affordable and below market rate, in addition to offering low-interest loans and incentives to encourage homeownership. This has resulted in an impressive 91.50% homeownership rate in Singapore.
Just to demonstrate how much the price of HDB flats (open market) vs private development differs, I have transcribed some listings I took a picture of from a realtor office:
Private Condo, 603sf, 1Bed 1 Bath — S$1.12M
Private Condo, 431sf, 1 Bed 1 Bath — S$929K
Private Condo, 1001sf, 2 Bed 2 Bath — S$1.92M
HDB Flat on open market, 1582sf, 4 Bed, 2 Bath — $555K
As you can see, the private development prices are easily 3–4x that of HDB flats. Since only citizens are allowed to buy HDB flats, people who buy private developments are either expats or the rich, while public housing is kept within reach of local Singaporeans. One thing that is worth mentioning is that in order for the government to maintain the right to redevelop the land to adapt to future needs, all flats are sold as a 99-year lease from the government, all eyes are watching as the first instance of land lease expiration is coming up to see how the government handles it.
One last thing that I want to mention about Singapore’s public housing is the racial quota system. In order to encourage racial and religious harmony and prevent siloed racial enclaves from forming, HDB has a racial quota system to force even distribution of races within each HDB building that is representative of Singapore’s demographics. Since Singapore is very diverse in race and religion like the U.S, forcing people of different religions and backgrounds to cross paths and interact naturally promotes cultural and religious understanding and therefore reduces divisions along religious and cultural lines. I think the U.S has a lot to learn from this approach, especially in today’s climate of great politic polarization and racial division, promoting more cross-cultural social interactions will go a long way in healing the lines that have divided the country.
Government
Almost every conversation I’m used to having about governments and policies are that of complaint and criticism, as the general perception of the U.S government is that of corruption, inefficiency, and downright incompetence. I am shocked to hear that in Singapore, governments officials are actually seen as prestigious, competent, and non-corrupt. The government in Singapore listens to the feedback of the people and operates in a very data-driven and evidence-based approach. All the government websites are well designed and functional, information is clear and easy to find, and bureaucratic hoops are kept at a minimum. I think the most important difference is that the government is Singapore is considered to be technocratic, where decision-makers are selected on the basis of their technical and scientific expertise in a given area of responsibility as opposed to their political affiliation or parliamentary skills. This results in people in power who actually knows what they are doing instead of charismatic salesmen who doesn’t have any expertise in their area of responsibility. This makes so much more sense in my opinion, how can things like environment protection, affordable healthcare, and sustainable transport be the subject of partisan squabble? The government in Singapore focuses on solutions and actually works for its people in order to improve transport, healthcare, education, living environment, and affordable housing for the benefit of everyone. As a result, transportation is world-class, healthcare is high quality and low cost, education is heavily subsidized, and housing is affordable even for a new college graduate. There is a real sense of progress as the government sets increasingly aggressive goals in every area of control. Imagine a government that stays in power because of its overwhelmingly positive approval rating as opposed to by finding scapegoats within its own society to rally the emotional reaction of voters.
After learning about the government of Singapore, I realized there is so much we can learn from them. While they are by no means perfect, the tangible progress in improving the lives of their citizens in only 60 years is proof that we can do better. We cannot make progress with non-compromising partisan stalemates, we need to move towards a more technocratic system governed by data, evidence, and reason. This is why I personally support Andrew Yang for 2020, who has been preaching everything I have said so far in this article. If you haven’t heard about him, I encourage you to check his policies here.
Food and Culture
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge foodie, which is one of the main reasons I travel. Singapore is a food paradise full of delicious and inexpensive food from around the world. Singapore has decided to embrace people’s love for authentic and cheap street food by formalizing them into hawker centers, which offers food court style food stalls with improved facilities, hygiene, and environment. The hyper-competitive environment of hawker centers is a Darwin pool of amazing foods, only the absolute best can survive and the price is kept low due to low space requirement and low-key facilities. Many stalls even won Michelin star for their superb dedication and taste. While there, we had so much amazing food at hawker centers that I would return to Singapore just to try more places. Sometimes the fandom for a city is in the immeasurable things, the parts that invoke an emotional response, the envy that you feel for it, hawker centers are definitely one of those things. Hawker centers are so popular with Singaporeans that it feels like a public good, the government has embraced this love and have made hawker centers a standard facility in the city, community, and public areas. There are now over 120 hawker centers in Singapore and growing.
Singapore values its past and established the National Heritage Board to preserve historical streets as well as beautifying them. I love the cultural streets that are full of character and art, which inherently becomes tourist attractions people love the visit. There can sometimes be a delicate balance between too much preservation that it hinders development and too little preservation that the street becomes characterless, I think Singapore has done a great job on this front to make many streets really attractive and enjoyable to walk through.
Conclusion
My visit to Singapore has really opened my eyes to what a competent and data-driven government can do to improve people’s lives. I left Singapore with many fresh perspectives and ideas, I am enlightened to share and advocate for these ideas. This is why Singapore has become my favorite city in the world, and who knows, maybe I will move there one day 😉
