Write up is an attempt to define and decipher , policy adopted by Singapore for providing housing in the island. Policy defines the system adopted in the island with land ownership vesting with state, houses being construct by Housing Development Board and leased for 99 years to the citizens. It also brings out limitations of the system.

1. Singapore Model of Affordable Housing
*Jit Kumar Gupta
Introduction
Housing a population of 5.704 million in a physical area of 719 sq kms
and having top ranking in Global City Performance Index, 2017,
Singapore city state has been globally recognized as an indisputable
leaderin the domain of housing, urban planning, smart mobility,safety,
healthcare and administrative services The Singapore housing model
has been globally recognized for its uniqueness, homeownership and
affordability. Detailed studies have been made of the Singapore model
to bring out its uniqueness, positivity and negativities. In this regard,
study made by Prof Anne Haila in 2015, which was published in the
book; Urban Land Rent: Singapore as a Property State, and
evaluation of the study done by Emily Hamilton, remains unique and
distinct. Study and evaluation made, has brought out clearly, the
factors which have led to the development of public housing in
Singapore;factors which distinguishes it from other systems prevailing
in different countries; role of political system in leveraging massive
housing besides bringing out the losers in the entire process.
Singapore focusses onand prioritize its citizens, with limited care and
compassion going to the migrant workforce, despite valuable
contribution made by these migrants to the rapid growth and
development of landlocked nation. Accordingly, Singapore’s housing
market works much betterfor the native households near the middle of
its income distribution, but provides severely inadequate housing for
its low-income migrant workers. Caring forlocals, perhaps remains the
prime reason for the ruling party to continue in power, since Singapore
chose to adopt limited democracy in the year1965. In Singapore
model,citizens have the limited right of using the house fora period of
99 years, based on a lease granted by the Housing Development
Board. Land ownership rights vests only with the national government,
with house owner having no right/title to land on which house is
constructed. After the expiry of lease period of 99 years, the house is

2. mandated to revert back to the Singapore Housing Board, only agency
created by Singapore governmentto provide public housing, who then
have the right to demolishthe existing houses and create new houses,
where the old house owners have no priority of allotment. System
prevailing in Singapore, has been mandated to avoid multiple
ownership by restricting the number of houses to two, which can be
allotted during the entire life span of a citizen. Limitation imposed on
the Citizens involve that they are permitted to sell the allotted houses
only after the lapse of a period of five years of allotment.House-owners
are allowed to make profit by selling those houses. In fact, houses are
allotted as a measure and strategy of providing security to citizens, to
create wealth by buying cheaper and selling expensive, for securing
their life and livelihood, which operates like a social security in the old
age.
Identifying right beneficiaries remains the most complex and
challenging task in developing countries, who are in the process of
massive and rapid urbanization. However different countries adopt
different approaches to identify beneficiaries eligible for affordable
housing. Two different strategies are seen to be followed revolving
around- either a targeted or universal approach. In countries such as
the US, Canada, Malaysia and India, vulnerable and low-income
households are targeted for provision of affordable housing. In
countries such as Singapore,the Netherlands, Swedenand Denmark,
the entire population is considered to be eligible foraffordable housing.
The Netherlands, for instance, has the highest share of social housing
in the European Union, representing about 32% of its total housing
supply and 75% of its rental market, which helps to keep homes
affordable (Fidler & Sabir, 2019). While household income is the
primary determinant for eligibility in most countries using a targeted
approach, other social and demographic factors may also be
considered, such as household size, number of children, citizenship
status, cast, duration of stay and prior asset ownership. Countries that
use a universal approach may also consider these factors. For
instance, Singapore caters primarily to “family units” with preference
going to married couples: Single people to be eligible need to be 35
years old to purchase flats; unmarried people, even with children, are

3. treated as singles;and olderresidents without families are encouraged
to move to smallerflats. However, in Singapore,one has to be resident
of the country. Visitors/migrant are not eligible to buy/allotment of any
house and can only rent from the local citizens.
Singapore Housing Market
As per study made, major factors which distinguishes the housing market
and have helped Singapore to create and deliver large stock of housing in
the island are the outcome of;
 Controlling and regulating the land resource by promoting exclusive
state ownership of land holdings, raising from 50% in 1965 to 90% in
2002, through the application of the principle of eminent domain, duly
supported by land reclamation which increased the size of the island
by a quarter
 Creating, Housing and Development Board (HDB), a government
agency, vested with exclusive right to plan, design, build and allot new
public housing on the land sourced from the national government. With
more than 1 million flats, HDB has grown from strength to strength
making its projects more modern and sophisticated.
 Adopting a lease-based system of land allotment to the recognized
institution for a defined period of 99 years through open auction for
creating housing and other types of development, with Housing
Development Board and private developers competing for land at
auctions, both paying market price.
 At the end of a 99-year lease, land with all its improvements are
mandated to revert to the ownership of State Land Authority (State
agency created to manage land), without any compensation made to
the flat owners
 Limiting/marginalizing the role of private sector in creating affordable
public housing, with private developer role confined to creating only
limited stock of high-end housing.
 80% of Singapore citizens and legal residents live in owner-occupied
public housing created by Housing Development Board on the land
leased by the state.

4.  Unlike globally adopted pattern of public housing, under which units
remain government-owned and leased to low-income tenants--
Singapore’s public houses are leased to middle-income buyers with
purchasers given the exclusive right to live in their flat, sell it at a
market-rate price afterthe lapse of 5 years period,orlease it to a tenant
until the building’s 99-year lease expires.
 Entire public housing program is ownership based and no housing
constructed for renting out.
 Government land ownership is known to prevent individuals from
capturing rising land rents, keeping housing affordable and making
Singapore an attractive investment opportunity for foreign firms.
 With flat costing around 4.6 times the median income, innovative
system of housing finance makes housing accessible to many
households at lower prices.
 Creating numerous typologies of housing varying in size, area and
accommodation, ranging from studios for seniors, to 3-room flats to
higher-end “Executive” flats. linked closely to affordability of
household’s income.
 New flats to buyers are made available at subsidized rates,
with income caps placed for new units.
 Funding for housing is sourced through contributions made by
individual savings accounts, requiring workers to contribute 20% of
their pay into individual accounts in the Central ProvidentFund with
employer’s contribution placed at an additional 17% of salaries.
Funds available in CPF accounts can be used for funding down
payment /monthly mortgage payments.
 Right to sell the flat at market value, becomes available only after
residents have lived in the subsidized flat that they purchased for at
least five years.
 Throughout their lifetime, residents are permitted to purchase two
subsidized units from HDB that they can resellat market-rate prices,
making substantial appreciation.

5.  Prevailing housing policy is known to promote conflicting interests
involving homebuyers wanting prices to remain lower while owners
wanting to see more appreciation.
 Singapore Land Authority (SLA), created by the state, is the sole
agency authorized to handle land use planning and manages state
land.
 SLA follows innovative policy options for optimizing the available
limited land resource. Agenda followed is- Limited Land, Unlimited
Space (2011), embodying ‘scarcity of land shall not be a constraint but
an opportunity for greater innovation and creativity in land use’.
 Zoning carries little relevance and meaning, when issues related to
land and land utilization are considered.Unlike many countries where
zoning is used as a tool to severely limit construction/ inflate house
prices, -- Singapore model success hinges on leveraging zoning for
permitting new developmenton continued basis,to maintain increased
access to housing.
 SLA and HDB both work in tandem with the sole aim to search for
opportunities of development /redevelopment, to prevent housing
constraints from resulting in widespread housing unaffordability
 Purchasing housing for Singaporeans is not just buying a shelter but
also a key investment asset…over the long term, with value of flats
closely linked to the strength of state economy.
 Land bank and controlled release of land for housing has been
effectively and efficiently used by the state to regulate/limit the
appreciation in house price, ensuring adequate gains to purchasers
of subsidized flats, besides limiting their appreciation, that would put
new purchases out of reach for many citizens
 Major losers/sufferers of the housing policy remain non-citizens/
foreign workers, constituting about one-fifth of the 5.6 million
population, who remain shut out from the HDB system with some
exceptions made, for attracting skilled foreign workers
 Singapore housing policy remains highly discriminatory with more
than 300,000 low-income workers forced to live in crowded, dirty
dormitories with around 80 people sharing a single toilet,

6. conditions which are much worse than for the typical low-income
worker with comparable levels of affordability. Majority of foreign
workers living in dormitories face health related problems including
COVID 19.
 Housing policy for foreign workers largely been shaped by citizens’
and residents to the exclusion of the state.
 Prevailing system encourages heterosexual marriage, childbearing,
and living with family, making married Singaporeans eligible to
purchase HDB flats at age 21, as against 35 years for singles
 Using innovative scheme namely; En bloc Redevelopment Scheme
(SERS), for making optimum use of available land resource, by
authorizing government to take over selected buildings for
redevelopment prior to expiration of their 99-year lease for creating
larger housing stock.
 Continued innovations, out of box thinking, using new technologies,
promoting large scale research and development and promoting new
typologies of housing, funding the maintenance/upkeep of existing
housing etc. make Singapore, a role model in creating housing for its
natives.
 The potential financial gain from the value of flats have become so
important to the nation’s citizens that was used as a political tool, with
the ruling party announcing that it would prioritize maintenance of
estates in constituencies that elected a PAP member. The party has
never lost a general election.
 To promote social harmony and to prevent the formation of “racial
enclaves”,Singapore follows a policy of minimum occupancyof each
of the main ethnic groups in the city — Chinese, Malay and Indian in
each housing block.
 Recognizing the role and importance of public housing in the prosperity
of the country, HDB not only maintains its buildings and grounds
carefully, but periodically upgrade estates with new elevators,
walkways and facelifts.
 Decision to make every citizen partner in the country’s prosperity, led
Singapore to have highest rates of home ownership in the world with

7. more than 80% of the population living in government-built flats.
Offering subsidized flats for sale in 1964 that laid the foundation for
Singapore’s real-estate success.
Conclusion
Looking at the entire context of Singapore model of providing housing, it
can be safely concluded that factors which led to success of the program
essentially were based and revolved around; making housing a state led
programme, duly supported by contributions made by the beneficiaries
and the employers; High degree of continued political commitment to
promote public housing on large scale and providing housing to all the
citizens; making housing as the social security for the citizens; creating a
single agency for planning, constructing and managing housing; limiting
the role of private sector in affordable housing; limiting the number of
house ownership to two to any citizen during lifespan; effectively and
efficiently regulating housing market; minimizing speculation; focusing
only on citizens; excluding migrants from house ownership program;
exercising stringent controls on regulating the housing market; making
ownership of land vest with state; adopting leasehold system of allotting
housing for a defined period; creating right to take over the
housing/reverting the ownership of housing/land to state agency after the
expiry of lease period;making optimum use of available land by adopting
the principle of -Limited land and Unlimited Space; eliminating the
limitations imposed by the zoning, landuse and building bye-laws;
innovating housing design/management; promoting development/
redevelopment of land to maintain availability/ affordability of flats ;
limited population size, compact area with committed and well defined
administrative/governance structure; robust economy; high per capita
annual income ; adopting state of art technologies;promoting highdegree
of cost-efficiency;continuously searching for new options to innovate and
create housing stock on year to year basis etc.
 Looking at the entire context of Singapore model of providing
housing, it can be concluded that model is full of dualities and
contradictions.Itremains discriminatory for all outsiders.Itis purely

8. meant to serve the locals and citizens to the exclusion of the
outsiders. It does not talk of affordability but wishes to perpetuate
a system which recognizes housing more as an investmentto make
money for the natives to assure their future, rather than a place
providing security, safety, identity and a space for the family to live
and grow. It is hybrid modelwhich works on a capitalist philosophy
of promoting free economy but trying to achieve the
principles/objectives of socialism. Singapore has solved the
housing problem,butthis certainly isn’t true, forthose shut out from
the Housing Development Board system.
Bibliography
 Solutions-to-the-Affordable Housing- Crisis; August 15, 2019;
https://nlihc.org/sites/default/files/Solutions-to-the-Affordable-Housing-Crisis.pdf
 A Century of Public Housing- Lessons from Singapore;
https://theconversation.com/a-century-of-public-housing-lessons-from-singapore-
where-housing-is-a-social-not-financial-asset-121141
 Hamilton Emily ;The Limits of the Singapore Housing Model; August 5,2020
 Haila Anne; Ur ban Land Rent; Singapore as a Property State ;2015
 Majendie Adam; Why Singapore Has one of the Highest Home Ownership Rates
. e Author;
**Jit Kumar Gupta
Former Advisor, Town Planning Punjab Urban Development Authority
#344, Sector 40-A, Chandigarh-160036
mail- jit.kumar1944@gmail.com,
mob- 90410-2641.