Lessons from a neighbour
IN my early years, close-knit community living was common. We had our gates wide open. We visited neighbours. We played together in the neigbourhood every day.
In those days, we readily shared information with our neighbours and learned good things from each other. That was the way to improve our lives and thrive together.
Today, although we do not visit our neighbours as often as we would like due to changes in lifestyle, technology still helps us to learn and share.
The same concept can be applied in a larger context. For instance, learning from neighbouring countries to enhance areas that require improvement.
This echoes the view of our new Housing and Local Government Minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin. Her ministry plans to study the management of public housing systems, and the challenges and current policies from the Singaporean government.
The ministry’s idea is not to implement the Singapore public housing system in our country, but to understand and adopt concepts that are suitable for the local landscape.
This is a wise move as Singapore has a successful track record and a lot to offer when it comes to public housing and affordable housing systems. The transformation of their housing system can be traced back to the inception of its Housing Development Board (HDB) in 1960.
In 1947, the British Housing Committee Report indicated that Singapore had one of the world’s worst slums, and the average person-per-building density was 18.2.
In 1959, 9% of Singaporeans lived in public housing. Singapore’s HDB was set up in 1960 during Singapore’s housing crisis. It was tasked with providing sanitary living conditions to replace the prevalent slums and squatter settlements.
In 1968, to help more people become homeowners, the Singapore government allowed the use of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings for down payments and to service the monthly mortgage loan instalments. This, together with other schemes and grants introduced over the years, have made home ownership more affordable and attractive.
Today, more than one million homes have been delivered in 23 towns and three estates across Singapore. HDB flats house over 80% of the country’s resident population, with about 90% of them owning their home.
There are many success factors behind Singapore HDB. With regards to land constraints, the Land Acquisition Act that came into effect in 1967 enabled the Singapore government to acquire land at low cost for public use. Today, 90% of the land is owned by the government as compared to 49% in 1965.
To address the land limitation issue and to increase land efficiency, Singapore prioritised high-rise development and became one the densest cities in the world. The Singapore government conducted several research projects to ensure that cost-effectiveness and quality were continuously maintained.
In addition, Singapore’s public housing estates are self-contained communities with facilities and amenities. This far-sighted and comprehensive planning has led Singapore to become one of the most livable cities in the world.
The key to this achievement was due to the strong government support for affordable public housing. According to the HDB financial report, public grants and subsidies to HDB in 2017 reached S$1.2bil, equivalent to RM3.6bil. The public housing evolution of our neighbour serves as a great reference for us to emulate and improve on.
I am glad to see that our new government plans to set-up the National Affordable Housing Council in order to consolidate the various agencies that currently overlap each other in meeting such objectives.
This centralised body will require a pool of professionals with relevant expertise in delivering affordable housing, to help meet the government’s target of building one million affordable homes within 10 years.
We would have achieved our needs for affordable housing long ago, if the billions and billions of ringgit reported stolen from 1MDB was allocated instead to the affordable housing sector by the previous government. Likewise, if the total accumulated fuel subsidies from 2006 to 2013, amounting to RM120bil, could have been spent on affordable housing, the issue would also have been very easily solved.
In a previous article, I mentioned that I often wondered why the previous government didn’t directly drive affordable housing.
A friend mentioned that the reason the previous government failed in its obligation was, “there isn’t any ‘money’ involved in affordable housing.”
With the new government promising higher efficiency and transparency in delivering affordable homes, together with a good reference model from our neighbouring country, the rakyat’s dream of owning a house can soon materialise.