Housing Development Board (HDB) has won the The United Nations Public Service Award (UNPSA). UNPSA is a prestigious international award in recognition of excellence in public service. The award recognizes HDB’s contribution to successfully provide over 80 per cent Singaporeans with affordable quality flats, with 95 per cent of these owning these homes.

The Singapore government has in fact invested considerably over the years, and engaged in major makeover works for older estates. Hence these residential areas are included in the continual island state renewal. In Yishun ( northern part of Singapore) where I used to live, the blocks surrounding what used to be my home had undergone several renovations from re-painting works, lifts upgrades to erecting new sheltered walkways leading to the closest bus stops. These upgrade programmes have greatly maintained the quality of the estate and the comfort of the neighbourhood.

In newer estates, the line is also greying between what used to awe struck design that belonged exclusively to private apartments and those that wear the face of a typical HDB building. Recent HDB residential areas now boast bolder designs with colours, and comes with condo-like facilities even.

The high quality standards of HDB apartments has of recent become a natural magnet drawing a growing number of foreign students. And I suppose with a booming real estate and sky rocket rental rates, HDB apartments have become even more attractive.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 1:40 pm and is filed under HDB Homestay, Singapore Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.