Is Singapore's housing model a realistic solution for Canada?

Urban planner Louisa-May Khoo says she got a sense of deja-vu when British Columbia Premier David Eby announced the BC Builds housing program this year.

- CHUCK CHIANG

Khoo, a University of British Columbia public scholar, was a veteran of Singapore’s planning and development sector starting in 1996 before arriving in Vancouver in 2018.

When Eby unveiled BC Builds in February, Khoo said many Singaporean philosophies were instantly recognizable in the provincial program, right down to the exact percentage points in one instance.

“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 said. “The StrongerBC economic plan is also pushing for things like a lot more upstream planning, which Singapore has always done.

“Some of the regulations and proposals that I’ve seen in terms of the housing plan is very much inspired (by Singapore).”

Singapore’s housing model, where the government plays a dominating role in land ownership, property development, financing and other related aspects of society, has been held up numerous times by others such as Eby as a path to affordability here in Canada.

But the idea isn’t without its critics, especially when much of the policy may not be applicable in the Canadian social environment.

The BC Builds program aims to use “government, community and non-profit owned” land and $2 billion in low-cost financing to deliver middle-income homes.

Eby has said more Singapore inspirations are coming for B.C.’s program.

“We’re starting with rental housing,” Eby said during a February announcement for BC Builds. “We’re going to move into housing for purchases as well. This is a model that has been used in Singapore, in Vienna we know that it works, and we are taking that model and we’re expanding it dramatically. “This is how we change the direction of housing.”