Comparison of Public Housing in CountriesChua Zong Han 3i201

Public Housing• Usually refers to housing that is owned by the government • Commonly, the housing is rented at a cheap and affordable

price to citizens and the rental is heavily subsidised by government

Comparison between countries• Main countries used for Comparison• China• Singapore• Hong Kong

Public Housing in China• Public housing in China mainly consists of housing that is

owned by families and housing that is owned by the government.

• Before 1998, most of the public housing was rented out to the people at a very cheap price. These houses were often abandoned flats and were commonly a sign of poverty.

Public Housing in China in 1988

Public Housing in China• However with 1998, new policies were made to improve the

public housing in China. The Housing Provident Fund(HPF) was made to allow lower class families to purchase a house by making them contribute their income to a compulsory housing savings plan. Through this, over 80% of public housing were sold to the citizens, allowing them to have ownership over their homes and the house privatization rate reaching 72.8%

Public Housing in China• Furthermore, for the families who were acknowledged to be

unable to buy their homes as their salaries were too low to purchase homes, the rental scheme also known as “Lian Zu Fang” was made available to them.

• They were able to rent these houses at very cheap rates such that even the families with salaries that were extremely low could also afford the monthly rental.

Public Housing in Hong Kong• Public Housing in Hong Kong is largely similar to the system in

China with a few differences in the quality of public housing. • The renting of public housing to citizens started in 1954 with

the first estate being the Shek Kip Mei estate. The first apartments were merely small cubicles which housed more than one family on average with the rent being between HK$10 to $14.

• With the following years, various schemes were released such as the low-cost housing scheme in 1961 which provided rental households for families who held monthly incomes of no more than HK$600.

Public Housing in Hong Kong• In 1973, the Hong Kong government announced that it would

be aiming to provide accessible housing for the poor whose household income per month was between HK$2100 to HK$3150.

• The Home Ownership Scheme was then released in 1980. For the first time, citizens in Hong Kong were able to purchase public apartment flats. These flats were sold to low-income citizens at a 30 to 40% discount over the normal pricing, with average unit selling prices being around HK$120,000.

• This created a huge demand for people wanting to own their own homes and led to the government having to redevelop older housing estates and upgrade their facilities to resell them to the citizens in 1983.

Public Housing in Hong Kong

Kin Ming Estate, 2005

Public Housing in Singapore• All of the public housing in Singapore is managed by the

Housing and Development Board (HDB). Most of the public housing in Singapore are high-rise flats which were commonly known to citizens as HDB flats.

• While the general system is said to be one where citizens are able to own their own houses, the system behind public housing in Singapore is essentially a 99 year lease-hold where the houses are offered to citizens.

• The flats are generally very affordable and also can be paid for by various schemes such as the Central Provident Fund (CPF)

• From the time of its independence till today, nearly 85% of Singaporeans are now living in these HDB flats.

Public Housing in Singapore• In 1999, Singapore announced its plans to build public housing

in the form on executive condominiums. These executive condominiums while being cheaper than private housing in Singapore, was much more spacious and luxurious as compared to ordinary 3 to 4 room flats in HDB flats.

Comparison between Public Housing• The general trend for Public Housing in China and Hong Kong

is that it basically is made for the citizens who are unable to afford private housing in these countries due to a lower income.

• However, in comparison to this, the public housing in Singapore is not generally considered to be meant for citizens who live in poverty as the residents in HDB flats are generally well-off and above the poverty line.

• Rather, the HDB flats were constructed as a result of a lack of housing space in Singapore and a need for better city housing planning.

Comparison between Public Housing• Also, in terms of house privatization rate in these three

countries, both Singapore and China have rather high house privatization rates of 82% and 72% respectively.

• On the other hand, most of the public housing in Hong Kong remains to be rented to citizens with a much lesser amount being able to own their own homes.

Comparison between Public Housing• The public housing in these three countries also differ quite

greatly in terms of their quality of housing.• It is generally observed that quality of housing in China,

especially the rental apartments, is much lower than in both Hong Kong and Singapore.

• The rental apartments in China are usually abandoned flats who have not gone through proper upgrading and are often lacking in facilities

• Hong Kong and Singapore on the other hand, have had most of their housing areas going through upgrading with housing estates having accessible facilities for their residents.

• Singapore has also ventured into the providing of higher level public housing in the form of executive condominiums to its citizens.

Conclusion• We can see that the public housing in these three countries

differ in terms of their purpose and quality. While it is true that Singapore might have gone far in its public housing schemes as compared to China and Hong Kong whose public housing schemes continue to remain in a developmental stage, it is necessary to continue to improve and find new ways to conquer the problem of limited space in Singapore.