SINGAPORE (AFP) – On a clear day, you can see Indonesia's Riau
islands from the top of The [email protected], a cluster of 50-storey
buildings with spectacular views of Singapore's waterfront and
financial district.
But the seven towers of The
Pinnacle do not host corporate headquarters, a five-star
hotel or luxury apartments.
It is a public housing project, the
tallest and most ambitious ever undertaken by a city-state that
prides itself on almost universal home
ownership after four decades of rapid progress.
Boasting 1,848 flats with condominium-like finishes and costing
up to 645,800 Singapore dollars
(461,000 US) for prime units, The Pinnacle has taken public housing to new heights in property-obsessed
Singapore.
The price tag may seem high for a public apartment, but the
project is located in the city centre and a comparable unit would
cost a million Singapore dollars or more in a private condominium
out in the suburbs.
"It has certainly turned the notch a mark higher. With the
Pinnacle, (the government) has sent the message that public housing
can include good urban designs and
lifestyle elements," said Chua Yang Liang, head of research and
consultancy for property advisers Jones
Lang LaSalle in Southeast Asia.
The view from the 156-metre (511-foot) rooftop garden is so good
that outsiders willingly pay an entrance fee of five Singapore
dollars to take in the scenery and shoot pictures and videos.
"We came here just to see it because it's the only HDB flat like
this," said Nur Rashida Bte Naha, a 42-year-old part-time nurse who
visited the complex with her husband and three sons on a recent
Sunday afternoon.
The HDB is the Housing and Development
Board, a powerful agency whose projects have taken
Singaporeans out of the slums and ghettos that once blighted the
island and into multi-storey apartment
buildings surrounded by shops, markets, banks, transport
links and other essentials.
More than 80 percent of Singaporeans live in HDB housing, and 95
percent of residents own their flats, according to the agency's
website.
The agency has built more than 900,000 apartments since the
1960s, with recent HDB offerings like The Pinnacle a far cry from
the early flats which were largely unfurnished, came with bare
cement floors, squat toilets and lifts that did not stop on every
floor.
Savings stashed by Singaporeans in a compulsory national pension
scheme are used to finance HDB mortgages, creating a permanent pool
of funds.
Public housing neighbourhoods are designed so that residents in
the multi-ethnic nation have common areas to interact in a bid to
promote racial harmony.
The HDB has also put in place ethnic eligibility quotas for
buyers to prevent racial enclaves from forming.
"The idea of having a certain percentage of other races in a
particular area, this is important," said Ho Kong Chong, an
associate professor with the National University of
Singapore's sociology department.
"In other countries, if you look at the example of France, where
the migrants converge in certain districts, you will have
ethnic enclaves and then there will
be certain problems and issues of not being able to understand
different ethnicities and backgrounds," he told AFP.
The Pinnacle is a pet project of Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew, the longtime
member of parliament for the district where it stands, and the
design was the result of an international competition won
eventually by a local firm of architects.
The apartments' interiors, including glazed ceramic floors in
the living and dining rooms and timber-strip floors in the
bedrooms, reflect the country's growing affluence.
Prospective buyers of new HDB flats have to take part in a
lottery, and the lucky ones who were able to purchase units at The
Pinnacle when it opened in December are delighted.
Resident Jeremy Gan, 31, who bought a unit for 358,000 dollars
with his fiancee, said he was attracted by its prime location and
the convenience of having two train stations nearby.
"We feel lucky having a home here because we didn't think we
would get it. It's the cream of the crop for HDB now, so we are
very happy," said Gan, who is planning a wedding ceremony at the
rooftop garden in October.
"It's an investment. It's worth it in the long run," he
said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100224/lf_afp/singaporehousingpropertysociety_20100224173023