Singapore is a small country of only 700 km². Although it has grown from 581.5 km² in the 1960s, land reclaimation can not keep up with the population growth and the need for land.
With a population of 3.6 million people, the price of land is very high with only the upper middle class able to afford to live in landed or high rise private property. That equates to around 20% of the population. The rest of the 80% of Singaporeans live in HDB flats. HDB stands for Housing Development Board and is a government statutary board.
During the 1960s, there were still many ad hoc settlements with poor drainage and sanitary infrastructure. The government was on a drive to build proper housing facilities and aimed to provide every family with their own home.
Today, Singapore is considered a developed nation and with that, priorities for housing has changed. There are now more types of social housing available to cater to the various income groups. Flats come in basic and premium where the difference is usually full height windows in the living and finishes like timber flooring in the bedrooms.
For people who would like to upgrade to better housing but can not afford the price of private apartments, schemes such as Executive Condominiums and now DBSS flats have been introduced.
Executive Condominiums are similar to private condominiums with facilities such as swimming pools and gymnasium except it is built by the HDB. More recently, DBSS which stands for Design, Build and Sell Scheme was introduced. Developers are given the freedom to complete and launch the project creating better housing at subsidised rates.