A recent development by Singapore’s public Housing and Development Board suggests an alarming future for public/private partnerships in countries who may be helping the needy to find affordable housing well into the future.
Singapore is a city of superlatives, uniquely prosperous and forward-thinking. Its Housing Development Board (HDB) was created in 1960 with much the same mandate as public housing agencies everywhere: charged with building decent affordable housing to replace slum neighbourhoods. In this regard, as with so much of Singapore’s urban enterprise, it has been wildly successful.
Today, 80% of the Singapore live in HDB apartments, most of which are lease-owned (for 99 years). A portion of these flats are rent-controlled and available to those most in need. Otherwise, market forces determine their prices.
It has been recently announced that flats developed privately for the HDB and selling at market value have reached and surpassed a one million dollar sale price! (This is roughly equivalent to USD$730,000.)
Is this the direction in which public-private partnerships will move in countries that are championing mixed development? Can everyone match the unique opportunities and enterprise of the Singapore city state? Is it actually possible to allow public housing value to float in the regular housing market without freezing out those who are most needy?
Read more in the Straits Times: Three Housing Board flats hit $1 million mark in resale market
A Housing Development Board description of their uniquely successful public housing system: Public Housing – A Singapore Icon
