by Pat Low
Many have commented on the proposed Dover Forest development. Almost the entirety of comments relate to mundane issues of having green lungs, preserving habitats, use alternative sites, etc.
I recently blogged on this topic, and raised two big picture issues.
One of the issues I raised is that the population of Singaporeans (newbies excluded) has plateaued. So, what exactly is the continued fervour of public housing all about?
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) provided a good write-up of the proposed HDB estate, including various demographic data.
However, the elephant in the room is data on new citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs).
Curious, I tried to dig in on the data. Here are the facts:
21.3 per cent of households live in private housing.
Thus, the number of residents living in public housing is 4,044,000 x 78.7% = 3,183,000.
The average household size is about 3.22.
Hence, the number of households in public housing is 3,183,000 / 3.22 = 989,999.
After doing a research based on Teolida.com, the number of housing units built by HDB, SIT, HUDC, and JTC that are currently in use is about 1,074,667.
Of course, from an ongoing concern basis, there will always be demand due to mobility across estates and unit sizes as well as household breakoffs due to marriages, etc.
But in terms of gross numbers, the inventories of public housing seem to be at optimum.
HDB has a detailed explanation for the proposed Dover Forest estate, including data on demographics. But what stood out like a sore thumb is the elephant in the room – new citizens and PRs.
Like all ministries across the board, HDB is silent on this.
The continued breakneck pace of HDB estate development can only mean one thing. It is obvious the building plan is driven by population growth from immigration. Seems that Lie Thai Ker’s magic number of 10 million is still in play.
This is an opinion piece from a member of the public, and does not reflect TOC’s position on any matter.
