As a rising senior, I am about to embark on the wild journey that is apartment hunting. However, for many Singaporean residents, apartment hunting does not begin until after their marriage or in their late 20s. Due to scarce land and an ever declining birth date, the Singaporean government has taken several measures that make single people under the age of 35 to go through a lot of difficulties to get their own house. Furthermore, families are given preferences for housing over unmarried buyers. So, how has housing changed in Singapore? What does it look like now? Has it impacted the average Singaporean!? This blog tries to answer these questions.
History of Housing in Singapore
After World World War II, most residents of Singapore lived in Kampongs i.e. villages. Extended families lived under the same roof and most houses were traditional “Attap houses” made of Attap palm. However, these houses were very prone to fire. When the People’s Action Party came to power in the 1950s, they began to modernize Singapore. Urbanization and modernization became even more important once Singapore became independent. Without no natural resources and limited land, the pragmatic state had to start relying on developing Singapore’s manufacturing and services sector! It had another important work to do, inculcate nationalism amongst its diverse yet fragmented population, which had been segregated from each other on the basis of ethnicity, religion, clan associations etc. One way to do so was through housing!
Today, a majority of the Singaporeans live in tall high rises. The shifting of people from kampongs to urban planned townships began in the 1960s and continued into the late 1980s and early 1990s.
I visited the housing estate in the quaint Tiong Bahru area, which was built in the 1920s and 30s and is characterized by its unique architecture, a change from modern Singapore's high rise apartments. ...continue reading "Housing in Singapore!"
