Under One Roof - Public Housing in Singapore

Posted by Simply Jean under Blogging, Buildings and Monuments, National History, Reflections
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Standing by the window of my friend’s room in Tiong Bahru, I could see the completion of seven 48-storey towers of residential housing known as the Duxton Plain. Located at Tanjong Pagar, this marks the epitome of public housing construction - built and provided for Singaporeans and Permanent Residents by the Housing Development Board (HDB).

The construction of Duxton Plain along Tanjong Pagar (Pictures courtesy of Angela Jean)

I can’t help but think of how much housing in Singapore has improved over the years. I used to stay in a one-room rental flat in Toa Payoh before moving to a larger three-room flat in Yishun.

The difference was vast and the environment was greatly improved. However, I remember missing my friends whom I used to play masak-masak with. I subsequently moved on to newer flats that had bomb-shelters, tinted windows and all things fancy.

I still occasionally remember the times when families gathered along the common corridor and at the void deck. As parents chatted, children played as one big family. Early days brought the kampong experience to the high rise life, but this has changed. Today, people keep more to themselves and feel less inclined to talk or even get to know their neighbours.

The name HDB has become part of our language - they are the ones who have built the roof over our heads for eight out of 10 people here. But they weren’t the first. The forerunner of HDB was the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), a  government organisation that performed the same function back in the ole days before Singapore attained self-governance.

Set up in 1927 by the British colonial government, the SIT was commissioned to improve the housing situation and it had much to tackle. Overcrowding and squatting, which resulted in widespread diseases due to the lack of hygiene, was a major issue in those days.  If you thought being squeezed into a packed MRT train is bad, can you imagine how it was like to actually live in such a cramped environment?

Before modern plumbing was implemented, one had to answer the call of nature over a bucket (thus the term “bucket system”) in an outhouse usually situated a little distance away from home. To clear these toilets, a worker known as the night soil carrier would dispose of the waste once a day - but imagine the stench that reeked when the buckets were full?

Early generation public housing along Tiong Bahru

Of course, SIT tried to solve such housing and hygiene problems by attempting to build better housing units. Do you know that a few of these flats are still around today?

These four-storey high blocks along along Tiong Bahru Road were the first pre-war public housing built by SIT in the 1930s. The SIT was also responsible for the subsequent construction of flats in Queenstown’s first estate - Princess Margaret Estate, whose name was later shortened to Princess Estate.

But by 1959 when for the first time a locally-elected government took charge, the overcrowding problem was still not solved. Only 23,000 units were built in the preceeding 32 years. The population of Singapore standing then at almost 1.6 million, was growing rapidly as more migrants settled here from their home countries.

The SIT was eventually replaced by the HDB on 1^st February 1960 with the passing of the Housing and Development Board Act. Led by Lim Kim San, the first goal was to redress the acute accommodation issue by increasing the pace of housing construction. As land was scare, housing had to be taken to the skies. By 1965, a total of 54,430 units in the form of dense, high-rise blocks were built. This was in accordance to a newly introduced Five-Year-Programme which sets a target for the number of housing units to be built. With these newly built flats, the housing problem was greatly eased. Some 110,000 housing units were built in under a decade - less than a third of that time SIT took to create more housing for Singaporeans.

When HDB first built these flats, they were rented to the people as most had either just migrated to Singapore or had come from the kampong with very little money. In fact, most of these flats were self-contained and rented out at low rentals of $20 for a one-room flat to $60 for a three-room flat.

Taking into considering the financial situation of the people, the rentals were designed not to take up more than 15% of the family’s monthly household income. In fact, this is still the same rate that low income families are still paying today if they rent from the HDB.

To encourage Singaporeans to take up home ownership, a scheme with extremely favourable terms was introduced for low-income families to buy their flats. To be eligible to buy a home at a significant discount, an income ceiling of $1,200 monthly was enforced. This scheme proved to be a blessing for those who would otherwise not be able to own a nest of their own.

Today, this income ceiling still exists, albeit at a higher amount of $8,000 because of progress and inflation. At a cost of just $3,330 for a one-room flat back then, this amount now is just enough to pay for a portion of a semester of my university education; which fortunately, can still be borrowed from my parents’ Central Provident Fund (CPF).

Speaking of which, do you know that the provision to utilise the CPF for the purchase of a HDB flat was introduced in 1968? This was to encourage the citizens to work hard and to provide them a stake of the nation’s future.

Block 48 Stirling Road

From the first blocks of flats built by the HDB along Stirling Road, constructions plans spread to Queenstown, which became the largest project and the first satellite town comprising of more than 17,500 housing units which could accommodate about 150,000 people. This town was built with self-containment in mind so that the residents did not have to travel to other areas for other facilities.

The dilapitated movie theatre still stands along Queenstown

In fact, it was so self-sufficient that by 1969, there were already three cinemas, a fresh food market and a bowling alley built, amongst other amenities. The old bowling alley-cum-cinema can still be seen when one is in an MRT train passing between Commonwealth and Queenstown MRT stations today, although I have a feeling that it may be torn down soon.

Using the Queenstown Estate as a model, two other estates - Buona Vista and Holland Village were developed. Toa Payoh was also chosen to be the second satellite town and was built in 1970. In the course of urban renewal, it was inevitable that land had to be acquired - affecting farmers who depended on precious farmland.

The 1971 Resettlement Policy offered affected farmers three options - a three-room flat in a new town, a cash grant of $7,800 or an alternative farmland. Most of the resettlement cases took up the cash option but subsequently purchased a public housing unit under the home ownership scheme.  I was told by my parents that it took a while for the farmers to get used to living in high-rise public housing. In fact, some of them even brought along their poultry when they shifted to the flats! Can you imagine the commotion then? It would have been really “bringing the kampong into the heartlands”!

With inflation, the cost of building subsequently increased, resulting in the increase of public housing. To ease worries of new buyers, the CPF Home Protection Insurance Scheme was introduced in 1981 to allow home owners who were using their CPF contributions for the purchase of their flats to pay a one-time premium from their CPF account towards the cost of the insurance. This will ensure that the flat will be paid for should the lessee pass away or become incapable of work.

With the industrialisation of Singapore and globalisation, various other measures and schemes were put in place in anticipation of possible scenarios. One such measure was the implementation of ethnic composition quota which ensures that various racial groups were integrated within blocks of flats. These measures actually provided the opportunity for me to get acquainted with the cultures of other races and religion better, which almost always ended with generous servings of food from my neighbours! It brought about this true communal, gotong royong (nature of goodwill and community) spirit that has slowly subsided with the newer, more spacious HDB flats.

Gradually, newer flats were built with nicer facades and better facilities. Having moved from a one-room flat to a three-room flat, and finally a newer place, I have seen for myself the improvements not only in the housing unit, but in the planning of housing estates too.

The neighbourhood is not only greener, but more facilities are designed to foster more interaction between neighbours. The kampong may have gradually disappeared but I am still hopeful that amidst our busy schedules and individual lives, we will find time to bring back that kampong spirit.

To read the other offerings in this special series, see:

• The Road to Nationhood
• Symbols of State
  
• From muted mutterings to one victorious voice - the cries of MERDEKA resounded

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