Evaluate a Socially Sustainable Housing Management Strategy: Singapore

About 82% of the people live in flats built by
the Housing and Development Board (HDB)

Good quality housing that
is affordable for many

Cited as a remarkable success

In 2010, HDB won the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour for “providing one of Asia's and the world's greenest, cleanest and most socially conscious housing programmes”.

In colonial period, housing was concentrated
in ethnic-based districts (enclaves)

Took the form of shophouses were many people lived
in confined, dangerous and unsanitary spaces

Other housing consisted of kampungs, traditional
village communities, with farmland (majority of people
resided in), and large estates of rich Europeans and locals

In 1920s, bad living conditions made the British colonial government create the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT)

The SIT became Singapore’s town planning authority

Over the next 23 years, 23,000 residential
units were constructed by the SIT

Replaced by Housing and Development Board (HDB) in 1960 to provide affordable housing for everyone

Home Ownership Scheme
introduced in 1964

1. Create stability in the nation

2. Affordability for all

3. Financial security and retirement adequacy

4. Improving quality and variety

5. Promoting strong family ties and social intergration

Matching house demand

Keeping the cost low for everyone

Meet the wishes of the public and provide
more choices/variety for buyers

Making sure the different ethnicities and
income classes are living harmoniously

Create more buffer in supply to make sure
there are always enough unsold flats

Restructure HDB pricing and resale scheme

Advantages

Affordable

Good Quality

The population is generally content

Creates nationalism

Limitations

Strain on government

The people do not get to
own their own homes

Overall, the housing management strategy
used in Singapore is very effective, with
most of the population using the public housing.