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Total tempat tinggal penduduk di sini ada sekitar 1100 ribu lebih terdiri dari HDB, kondominium, dan rumah-rumah pribadi baik berupa landed maupun private-flats. Bagian terbesarnya yaitu 83.5% adalah HDB (baik tipe 1/2/3/4/5-rooms atau Executive flats). Dari sekian banyak flat HDB, penduduk tetap Singapura (SPR) hanya memiliki 4.9% nya. Kenyataan menunjukkan mayoritas upper-class SPR memilih tinggal di kawasan swasta seperti kondominium atau private-flats.

Dari tulisan sebelumnya total populasi di pulau seluas 721 km2 ini ada sekitar 4.99 juta orang: 3.2 juta warga negara, 530 ribu SPR, dan sisanya orang asing. Dari total 3.73 juta penduduk (warga dan SPR) sebanyak 3089 ribu lebih tinggal di HDB. Ini adalah angka yang dikeluarkan biro statistik akhir Sep 2009 lalu.

As usual pictures speak louder than words, taken from our backyard and frontyard

What is important, he says, is not to lose sight of the tenets of Singapore’s public housing programme (Mr. Mah Bow Tan, Minister of Nat'l Development on Weekend Today 27 March 2010):

(1) Providing access to public housing for a large majority of the population;
(2) allowing Singaporeans to own their homes;
(3) and sustaining the value of their flats over a lifetime — thus enabling owners to monetise their units.

Currently, more than 80 per cent of the population here lives in HDB flats — a figure that has been steadily dipping from around 90 per cent a few decades ago. And as private housing becomes attainable to a larger segment due to rising affluence, Mr Mah expects the proportion to go down further, hitting a stable level of around 75 per cent in the decade ahead. Said Mr Mah: “I can’t see it coming down too much because then the private housing will not be able to cope” — there’s only so much space designated for such property in Singapore — “and the gap between private and public housing will be even bigger”.