Last Thursday, we tried to look deeper on what makes Yishun tick; and on a wider view, why Singapore’s housing development seems to be one which everyone, especially in Southeast Asia, looks up to as a benchmark. And I ended up saying I think the correct policies and the right government institutions are a few of the key factors to this success. We already cited the role of the Housing Development Board (HDB), to a point where the flats that they make, manage, sell, or rent are simply called HDBs. But there are other agencies, too.
In its website, HDB simply said that it “plans and develops public housing towns that provide Singaporeans with quality homes and living environments.†But what I find striking, and meaningful, is its focus on “communities.†The website says, “Living environments are provided with community spaces for residents to mingle and interact. Public housing policies and schemes are formulated not only to meet changing needs and aspirations, but they also support national objectives such as maintaining racial harmony and stronger family ties, and focus on the needs of elderly and those who may be in financial difficulty.â€
And you can see this in the way they plan the HDBs, the clusters, and the neighborhoods. They’re not only constructing housing units, they are shaping communities. Even the way they accept applicants to these HDB blocks follows certain policies and procedures aimed at creating harmony. It’s not open to anybody, “first-come-first-serve basis;†there are procedures aimed at achieving other social needs and priorities and ensure inclusiveness.
On the other hand, on the transport side, the Land Transport Authority (LTA), “aims is to place our users - motorists and public transport commuters - at the heart of our transport system.†Sure, there are grumblings on the excessive cost of cars (more than twice it normally is), and the expensive toll fess (electronic road pricing, or ERP), but people are resigned to the reality that these are meant to improve the transport of people. And they have an efficient public transportation system (MRT/bus systems) to take the slack. So people arrive on time.
But as a practitioner, the agency I admire most is the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore’s national land use planning and conservation authority. URA’s mission is “to make Singapore a great city to live, work and play in,†striving to create a vibrant and sustainable city of distinction. The URA has successfully transformed Singapore into one of the most liveable cities in Asia. This they did by adopting a long term and comprehensive planning approach, balancing both economic growth and a quality living environment.
At a little over 700 sq. km., this is a real challenge. Compared to them, if we speak of land available for urban use, we are rich! Maybe the relative abundance of land is a disincentive – we don’t have the compulsion to make the best use of land. URA had been successful in its task through timely and decisive policies in multiple land ownership and relaxing floor area ratios (FAR), which allows HDB to build those flats effectively which has plenty of communal space. In brief, URA establishes the long term, integrated and comprehensive plans, executes the plan through the different agencies of government, HDB and LTA included, through a detailed and systematic procedure of plan implementation.
As in any discussion on land and physical resources, the tension between private rights and public good remains (we discussed this in detail in January of last year). In Singapore, it leans heavily towards the common good and private rights take the back seat. You can’t buy empty land in Singapore, you can’t own more than one residential unit, and you share the ownership of the land upon which your flat is built on. But everyone gets the chance to own or rent a dwelling unit, and the city is shaped in a decisive way like clay on a potter’s wheel.
Yishun is just one of the Singapore’s 55 planning areas, which is organized into 5 regions. Each of the 55 are planned similarly to how Yishun is planned - policies, systems, and procedures, and all. The weight is shifted more to communal public rights rather than private rights, resulting in a more equitable distribution of the fruits of development. Others will disagree, it’s really up to each one of us to decide and believe what we really want. (To be continued…)