BOOK IN ENGLISH. Among the newly independent nations in Southeast Asia in the post-war era, Singapore’s housing development experience has been unique. Since the 1960s, its land space has been radically transformed into a modern cityscape comparable to any advanced western city. Modern urban public and private housing has ‘revolutionised’ and replaced the central city slums, and outlying rurality with a comprehensive provision of infrastructure and services. Initially, public housing was introduced to tackle severe housing shortage as a political response to universal ‘right to housing’, and in support of the export-led industrialisation. It has thus served both as a key mechanism of ‘nation-building’, and as a social stabiliser attracting international and local capital investment that has generated high rates of economic growth.
Through the welfare-oriented Central Provident Fund saving system and concerted efforts of the government, more than 80 percent of Singaporeans are now owners of HDB high-rise apartments distributed extensively in self-contained new towns. Within the ‘captive market’ of HDB estates, a new communal life has been streamlined between residence and work, in a well established and organised network of planned land use, guided by the 1970 Concept Plan. This Plan has since been regularly and systematically reviewed to incorporate new housing demands and the notion of upgrading. This study analyses the evolution of public housing design and services from the 1960s to the 1990s, a period that saw the transition from quantitative to qualitative emphasis. Concomitantly, the corporate management approach of the HDB has made public housing a contributor to the national growth, and a provider for jobs.
With the middle class rising in numbers and greater affluence, the mass-produced public housing has become less appealing to consumers who perceive private housing a representation of greater comfort, status, and better quality of life. Private housing hence has turned itself into a central mechanism of a social upgrading process that the developmental government has used to meet demand of expatriates and as an incentive in exchange for political support. In the 1990s, following the various measures taken by the government to facilitate access to private housing, the heated pursuit had however led to spectacular price surge that made access more difficult to many.
This book is a detailed study of the history of the growth of public housing and the recent trends in public policy in Singapore where private has been predominant over the public. It sees official response to the issue as it has been in the recent years and also tries to see how the future may unfold in Singapore’s quest for better housing for greatest numbers.
Table of Content
Acknowledgements
Contents
Tables
Figures
Plates
Summary
Chapter 1
Public Housing: From Quantitative To Qualitative Production
1.1 In search of an islandwide strategy: Early housing design and planning policies (1920-1970)
1.2 Elaborating and implementing a post-colonial planning and housing strategy
1.3 Revising the Concept Plan from 1990 onwards: Public housing in the age of globalisation
1.4 Home ownership democracy and HDB community development
Chapter 2
Private Housing Development
2.1 The rising aspirations for and commodification of private housing
2.2 Political response to aspirations
2.3 Restricted access to private housing
Chapter 3
Towards A Merger Of Public And Private Housing Provision?
3.1 Logic of greater privatized housing development in Singapore
3.2 Global cities in competition for quality services
3.3 Quality housing in a global city: Singapore
3.4 Merger of public and private housing? A continuing debate
Conclusion
Bibliography |
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30/12/14
from 01/04/12 to 31/03/13
