Inside Singapore's public housing
With a population of 5.5 million, Singapore has the third-highest population density of any nation in the world. In an ordinary country, this would present a challenge. On an island like Singapore, this ought to trigger a land and housing crisis.
Yet, through creative land use, high-density housing, and extreme vertical living, the liveability and affordability of homes in Singapore appear mostly protected.
The secret ingredient? Public housing.
PS, a resident of Chinatown’s Cantonment Estate, met with me to talk me through Singapore’s love affair with government-built homes.
“There’s nothing like it around the world”
80% of Singapore’s population today live in public housing. These are homes built by the Housing Development Board (HDB), which was founded over 60 years ago to tackle Singapore’s post-war housing crisis. The vision belonged to then Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew:
“My primary preoccupation was to give every citizen a stake in the country and its future. I wanted a home-owning society.”
In fact, since its founding in 1960, the HDB has built over 1 million homes, spanning 24 new towns across Singapore.
Often, public and social housing in other countries can come with stigma attached: perceptions of estates as being unclean, unsafe, or unfriendly. This is certainly not the case in Singapore – despite some estates being well over 50 years old.
“They’re places that just work”
Old or new, there’s a symmetry in the way that HDB estates are put together, that quickly becomes familiar. Some of the earliest estates – Tao Payoh and Everton – are what PS describes as ‘cookie cutters’. In spite of being at opposite ends of the city, they share very similar features:
Central, under-cover community spaces, used for exercise classes, parties, lectures and social gatherings
A well-maintained children’s playground
A government-subsidised hawker market, featuring both new and traditional shops
Sheltered walkways that protect residents from sun and rain
High-density blocks of flats, named by number
Tried and tested, these same features have been folded into every estate since the 1960s, because – as PS says – they just work. Indeed, at any time of day, the central community hubs in these estates appear to be filled with residents interacting, and actively using the benches, shops, and sports facilities provided. Even the communal corridors outside of people’s front doors are populated with shared washing lines and miniature-gardens.
“There is a bit of social engineering involved”
Community spirit and familiarity appear to be in abundance in HDB estates – and this is no accident.
As well as scientifically cultivating spaces that promote socialising and community activity, the HDB also enforces an ‘ethnic integration policy’ on its estates. In Singapore, the resident population is divided into four identities: Chinese (74.3%), Malay (13.5%), Indian (9%), and ‘other’ (3.2%). In HDB estates, therefore, housing is distributed along the same lines, ensuring that estate population is reflective of the broader Singapore demographic.
To an outsider, this seems like an alien concept, and there are certainly downsides – for example, individuals are restricted to buying and selling homes within their own ethnic category. However, the policy has successfully encouraged more integrated communities in Singapore.
The ethnic integration policy is representative of the HDB’s wider approach to placemaking in its estates: decisions on the built-environment are made with science and data, always with the view to engineer particular kinds of communities and social behaviours.
It may feel dystopian, yet the seemingly happy face of the HDB estates suggests that there is ‘success’ here.
“Everything is constantly undergoing renewal”
At surface level, the public housing model in Singapore doesn’t seem unlike the private leasehold model in the UK: home-buyers purchase the lease of a property for an extended period of time, while the wider estate is managed by the leaseholder. Indeed, nine out of ten HDB residents in Singapore own their homes.
But of course, there are significant differences. Not least, the subsidised price at which HDB home-owners can purchase their properties.
The other difference is in the degree of maintenance that the HDB commits to its many estates. While it’s clear from the architectural style which estates are oldest and newest, all are well presented and kept in a state of excellent repair. In PS’s estate in Cantonment, the painting cycle on the buildings is continuous – and the result is a colourful, clean estate that residents can take pride in.
But the renewal doesn’t stop there. Under the HDB’s ‘Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme’ (SERS), the HDB may at any point choose a building to decant, redevelop and upgrade. The ‘SERSed’ residents receive market value for their current flat, and first choice for a new flat in the redeveloped scheme. While it used to be considered a privilege to be SERSed, more recently concerns have been raised over the smaller size flats being built into the redeveloped blocks.
In fact, creating higher density in the newer blocks is one of the core priorities of the SERS programme.
“The new estates are getting very ambitious. You wouldn’t know they’re public housing at all.”
The HDB estates are evidently a great source of pride for both the Singaporean government and people. This means that investment, innovative thinking and forward thinking continues to be poured into new projects.
On the horizon – literally and metaphorically – are several new estates that could challenge many of the better private residential developments around the world. Just next door to PS’s estate, for example, stands the Pinnacle@Duxton.
Completed in 2009, this 7-tower skyscraper reaches 50 storeys, contains 1800 apartments, and boasts two of the longest skyscraper skygardens in the world. And in spite of its incredible population density and radical size (it is a bit incongruous among the low-rise rooftops of Chinatown), there’s a warmth and activity present among the lower levels – with playgrounds, sports courts and community spaces layered cleverly to maximise the site’s small footprint.
Meanwhile, still in the construction phase is the ‘forest town’ of Tengah – perhaps the HDB’s most ambitious project to date. When complete, Tengah is set to be the first HDB town plan that incorporates smart technologies from the outset. By building the town among the trees, the HDB is planning extensive access to green space for its 42,000 new apartments, as well as setting the town on a precedent of sustainability and green living.
Evidently, there is no shortage of ambition and investment here.
Our verdict
There is a lot not to like about public housing in Singapore. It is heavily regulated, tightly controlled, and embodies ‘top-down’ placemaking – where the government pulls the strings tightly. It certainly has a dystopian feel to it.
Yet, when seen in action – at the surface level at least – HDB estates appear to function well: the public spaces are well used and cared for, the residents regularly interact, small businesses are supported. Through placemaking and place-managing, HDB has effectively also created communities. But it raises the question: can community really be enforced?
There is a fine line between utopia and dystopia, and Singapore treads it carefully.
