Housing Development Board (HDB) estate

DEFINITION

Housing estate composed of apartment flats built by the government.

ETYMOLOGY

• To solve the severe housing crisis, the autonomous Singapore government established the Housing & Development Board (HDB) in 1960.
• From 1960 to 1965, the HDB launched a Five-Year Building Programme to develop the first HDB housing estate in Queenstown.
• In February 1964, the Singapore government launched the Home Ownership for the People Scheme to ensure that HDB flats were affordable for citizens.
• In 2014, about 80% of Singapore\'s resident population lived in HDB estates. Of them, 90% owned their homes.
• Today, Singapore has more than 1,000,000 flats in more than 20 HDB estates across the island. The more distinctive HDB estates include the circular flats in ang mo Kio, the Y-shaped flats in Toa Payoh, and the flats in Potong Pasir with a sloping roof.

SAMPLE SENTENCE

To prevent the public from gathering outside, the HDB and Town Councils have worked together to cordon off popular gathering locations within HDB estates, such as playgrounds and the chairs and tables in void decks. (Lianhe Zaobao, 10/04/2020).