Singapore Government Press Release
In 1960, only 9% of the population lived in public housing. Many others lived in crowded shop houses, squatter huts, or cubicles. The most urgent task of the PAP government was to provide these people, and the homeless, with decent homes.
Today, more than 92% of households own their own homes. 88% of households live in high rise HDB flats. In the 1960s, a home owning society was only a gleam in my eyes. Today, at the 36th National Day anniversary, it has become a reality. The success of public housing is part of the history of modern Singapore.
It began in the early 1960s when HDB started to build flats in areas like Tanjong Pagar and Queenstown, which are now part of the Tanjong Pagar GRC. In 1963 I decided to build two blocks of flats in Duxton Plain next to the Tanjong Pagar Community Centre along Cantonment Road.
This success was soon extended throughout the rest of Singapore. Even as new estates like Punggol 21 are being built, old housing estates like Tanjong Pagar have been upgraded. Indeed, Tanjong Pagar GRC has the most number of upgrading programmes. This strategy of estate renewal has allowed residents to enjoy modern amenities without re-locating to the new towns. However, because of the shortage of land in Tanjong Pagar, we are unable to build enough new flats to allow their children and younger residents to move into the area and enliven it. Hence, the inhabitants of Tanjong Pagar have aged considerably.
To reduce this problem I have decided to have the same Duxton Plain site ready for another first project, to build a cluster of high rise apartments for about 1500 to 1800 households. Because there are no physical height constraints in this area, these blocks can go as high as 50 storeys. They will be the first very high rise flats of up to 50 storeys to be built by HDB. They will rise on the site where the oldest HDB flats in Tanjong Pagar were built. In order to get the best ideas on public housing for this historic site, URA will hold an international design competition. The brief will require the design to preserve the special memory of the place. In addition, the design will be guided by two key pillars: the flats must be affordable, the flats must be maintainable. MND expects to announce the winning design in April 2002. Because of the scale of this project, the completion date is likely to be the end of 2007.
Present tenants of the two rental blocks will have the opportunity to become homeowners. They will have priority in the choice of flats – rental or purchase – in nearby areas, including, of course Tanjong Pagar. They will also have the first opportunity to buy the new flats in Duxton Plain when the project is completed in 2007.
If this experiment is successful, we can replicate it in a limited way to some parts of Singapore. Because of aircraft height constraints, most places in Singapore are not suitable for such projects. Where there are no such limitations, we can replicate the Duxton Plain project there. This will represent a new milestone for our public housing, which has moved from basic housing to good quality homes housing the majority of Singaporeans.
The completed flats will be offered for sale to the public through a balloting exercise. Grassroots leaders of Tanjong Pagar GRC and children of Tanjong Pagar residents will have a higher weightage in the ballot for the Duxton Plain flats.
In the last 36 years, the HDB programme was possible because our political, social and economic conditions generated sufficient surpluses year after year. Billions of dollars were spent on public housing. The Duxton Plain project and other new projects cannot be funded unless we continue to generate budget surpluses.
--------------------