In recent years, the world is experiencing an exponentially increasing population. The birth of the world's seven billionth baby in 2011, marked that the world population has reached an astonishing number. Such explosion of population led to varied social problems, including the housing crisis. According to the UN statistics in 2005, about 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing and 100 million are homeless. Thus, affordable and decent housing has become one of the most basic human needs, yet it is in alarmingly short supply throughout the whole world. The situation was even worse in the past. A number of Singaporeans could not afford their own houses and lived in an unhygienic and crowded condition in the 1950's. However, since the 1960's, when Singapore's Housing Development Board was established, the country's public housing programme has grown to become one of the largest and most effective in the world, which significantly improved the housing condition in Singapore. As of 2013, 81.9% of the resident population live in the accommodation which is publicly governed and developed. Nowadays, almost everyone in Singapore has his own house, making the world admire and learn from Singapore's public housing policy. In my opinion, although the public housing policy in Singapore is not perfect and requires further modification, it has still played a significant and irreplaceable role in enhancing social integration and effectively satisfying Singaporeans' basic housing need. In my following paper, I will talk about how the policy benefits Singapore citizens in purchasing their own house as well as how the policy brings about harmonious cultural diversity. In addition, I will introduce some limitations of the current public housing policy such as the price, and suggest some solutions to improve the policy.
First of all, Singapore's housing policy enhances social integration as different income and ethnic groups are housed together, and thus live and interact with one another in harmony.
