Affordability in the lion city: is Singapore’s public housing model built to last?
How has Singapore’s public housing model evolved since independence? In analysing the roots of this model and examining the factors contributing to the current public housing crisis, this essay argues that a revision of the original Housing and Development Board programme is vital moving forward.
Singapore’s public housing model is often heralded as a massive success. Over 80 percent of the resident population lives in a Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat, of which about 90 percent own them. These high rates of public housing ownership are quite rare, globally, earning HDB plaudits while its work has been turned into case studies at top universities around the world. “Lessons from the best public housing program in the world”, headlined an article from The World Bank in 2018. “From Slums to Sky Gardens–Singapore’s Public Housing Success”, gushed the American Society of Landscape Architects the same year, after HDB organised a tour for them.
Yet, this rosy external view of Singapore’s public housing is increasingly out of sync with the domestic one. There is growing sentiment amongst the Singaporean populace that the words “affordable” and “accessible” do not reflect the public housing system today. HDB flat prices—both for resale and new units, the latter being tied to the former—have continued to climb aggressively in recent years, in tandem with property appreciation in open markets in the world’s major cities. Public housing units of over S$1m each, once unthinkable, are now commonplace. Just last month, there were 74 such units sold, a record. Wage growth hasn’t kept up: Singapore’s housing price-to-income ratio is now seemingly at one of its highest levels ever (details below).
In the 1970s, as female flight attendants in the West were fighting gender discrimination, Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways were building brands around their sexualised female icons. Are we willing to accept sexism when it subsidises “the nation”?
Migrant domestic workers who’re trapped in debt-bondage—because of unscrupulous recruitment agencies—are sometimes unwittingly hired by foreign finance executives. The writer urges financial firms and their institutional investors to address this form of modern-day slavery.
A revival. A triumph. And a blossoming of hope that sport can help shatter age-old prejudices, helping build a more inclusive and compassionate society.
