When British Columbia Premier David Eby unveiled the BC Builds housing program earlier this year, urban planner Louisa-May Khoo experienced a striking sense of déjà vu. Khoo, a seasoned professional who transitioned from Singapore’s planning and development sector to Vancouver in 2018, recognized the unmistakable echoes of Singaporean philosophies in the provincial program.
“BC Builds has pegged their rental rates at 30 per cent of the household income, for instance, and that’s something the (Singapore Housing and Development Board) has always stuck by,” Khoo explained.
“The StrongerBC economic plan is also pushing for things like a lot more upstream planning, which Singapore has always done for a long time. Some of the regulations and proposals that I’ve seen in terms of the housing plan is very much inspired (by Singapore).”
BC Builds patterned after SG’s housing model?
Singapore’s housing model, characterized by the government’s dominant role in land ownership, property development, financing, and other societal aspects, has been frequently cited as a path to affordability in Canada. The BC Builds program aims to utilize government, community, and non-profit-owned land, along with $2 billion in low-cost financing, to deliver homes for middle-income earners. Premier Eby has hinted at further Singaporean influences in B.C.’s program, emphasizing the model’s effectiveness and the province’s intention to expand it.
However, the full adaptation of the Singaporean model in Canada faces challenges, according to Sock Yong Phang, an economics professor at Singapore Management University. Phang, who co-authored a report on Singapore’s housing policies, highlighted the unique context of Singapore, a city-state with acute land scarcity and a history of inadequate housing. The tightly integrated land-housing supply and financing system in Singapore has resulted in a 90-per-cent home-ownership rate since 1990.
Despite the differences, Khoo believes that Canada can adopt Singapore’s comprehensive approach to urban planning. “Not only do we have the (long-range plan) to say, ‘OK, in 40 years, where do we see the country going?’ We actually then break that plan down in development phasing called the master plan, so for every site, or every neighbourhood, the planning then becomes a lot more specific,” Khoo said of Singapore’s model.
Kai Ostwald, director at the University of British Columbia’s Institute of Asian Research, who has lived in Singapore, noted that the design of public housing units in Singapore encourages interaction among residents, fostering a sense of community that is often lacking in Vancouver’s housing.
Concerns, issues, criticisms
Singapore writer and activist Kirsten Han, however, points out the social engineering aspect of Singapore’s housing policy, which includes ethnic integration policies and quotas that may be hard for Canadians to accept. Additionally, the reliance on foreign migrant workers for construction, often housed in segregated dormitories, raises significant social issues.
Despite the criticisms, Khoo maintains that Singapore’s housing model has largely succeeded in providing citizens with affordable home ownership. “I do believe that Singapore has done housing well,” she said. “It is certainly a beacon that holds hope for other cities wishing to emulate.”
Khoo also emphasizes the complexity of Singapore’s approach, the result of decades of expert fine-tuning to align every aspect of society with housing policy. “People have said to me, ‘You make it sound so easy.’ But it is not quite a snapping of fingers. There is actual dogged diligence and a never-say-die attitude to working through each and every problem, big and small, to find creative ways around it to achieve what we see today.”
As BC Builds takes inspiration from Singapore’s successes, the program will undoubtedly face its own set of challenges. Yet, the potential to create a more affordable and inclusive housing landscape in British Columbia is an exciting prospect, one that could redefine urban living in Canada.