Introduction - Singapore's Public Housing - Resource Guides at National Library, Singapore

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Singapore's public housing has come a long way since we developed into an urbanised city state. Living conditions at the turn of the 20th century were appalling, as the rapid growth in population due mainly to immigrants from China and India resulted in the mushrooming of overcrowded slums, especially in the city centre (Chinatown area). Shophouses meant for housing one family were sub-divided and partitioned until five or more families were packed together with no sanitation facilities provided.

Worsening conditions led to the setting up of the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) in 1924 to alleviate the severe housing shortage. With limited powers, SIT could only embark on large-scale building construction during the pre-war period and from 1932 - 1942, and completed only a total of 2,049 houses. This was wholly inadequate to meet the needs of Singapore residents and increasing numbers of immigrants particularly after World War Two. Over crowded squatter settlements began to be erected at the city fringes when the central area was no longer able to accommodate the overwhelming population, with densities of up to 1,000 or more to the acre[1].

SIT redoubled their efforts and eventually built 20,907 houses by 1959 but this was only able to provide housing for 8.8% of the 1.579m population.

After the Housing and Development Board (HDB) took over the reins from SIT in 1960, the public housing programme was kick started on a large scale and within a decade (1969-1970), 120,669 units were completed and 42.7% of the population were in public housing by 1974.

As a result of the implementation of new and revamped policies, HDB was able to encourage home ownership of public housing units, and the relatively cheaper cost of public flats compared to private apartments contributed to the rising demand for public housing. Other policies encourage racial integration and religious harmony among residents living in close proximity, while ensuring also that the basic social and recreational needs of residents were met through the provision of communal spaces, playgrounds, carparks, parks and gardens. Shops, markets, hawker centres and shopping malls were also built in the heartland centres and peripheries to increase the self-sufficiency of each new town.

The physical design of the multistoried flats have also seen vast improvements over the decades, with the provision of units in various sizes to cater to the differing income levels of residents. Flats in various configurations - rectangular slab-blocks, L-shaped, Y-shaped, U-shapes, pin-wheel-shaped and point blocks – helped to differentiate one new town from another[2]. In the effort to continually improve the living environment for residents, various upgrading projects have been undertaken over the decades to enhance both the interior and exterior surroundings of these flats, with the private sector coming on board in recent years to offer more luxurious and creatively designed flats for the better off.

Today, Singapore is hailed as having achieved unparalled success in providing low-cost affordable housing for the masses and is admired the world over for its proven city planning and urban management policies that have transformed Singapore from slums and squatter settlements to modern and attractive apartments that currently houses 82% of the Singapore population.

[1] Yeh, S. H.K. (ed.). Public Housing in Singapore. Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1975. p 4.

[2] Ibid. p. 11.

This resource guide aims to provide the reader interested in Singapore's public housing a list of materials available from the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library and our electronic databases. The guide is divided into the following sections.

· Policies

· Law and Regulations

· Build-to-Order Scheme

· Build, Design and Sell Scheme

· Estate Rejuvenation Programmes

· Statistics

· Urban Planning for Sustainable Development

· Green and Sustainable Architecture

· Accessing the library's resources

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Editorial Notes

Types of materials included are:
- Print materials from the Lee Kong Chian Reference Library. Some of these materials can also be found in the public libraries; the reader can click on the hyperlink that activates NLB's catalogue.
- Newspaper articles from the Factiva database accessible from NLB's website.
- Websites
This guide highlights items in the collection, and is thus not intended to be comprehensive. Interested readers should search the NLB catalogue for more works.
We welcome readers' suggestions for improving this guide.