Three possible approaches to avoid ghost towns

FROM B1

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Two recent condominium projects in mature estates, Skye at Holland and Penrith at Margaret Drive (above) in Queenstown, were nearly sold out on launch, highlighting a return of interest in high-end homes in some of Singapore's oldest neighbourhoods near the city.

(HONG LEONG HOLDINGS)

towns lose economic vitality. Detroit’s population fell from 1.8 million in 1950 to below 700,000 in 2013 and about 640,000 today, placing severe fiscal strain on the city.

The lesson is clear: Without proactive intervention, cities can decline rapidly and housing developments can hollow out.

One way to fight off ghost towns is a familiar one to Singapore - driven from the top and requiring the wholesale resettlement of residents living in ageing homes.

After independence, Singapore undertook a state-led urban renewal programme.

Overcrowded and unsanitary city-centre housing was cleared, and residents were resettled into new towns like Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh.

Entire estates, along with more than 130,000 public housing units, were built in five-year periods between the 1970s and 1990s, and sold at concessionary prices.

The large-scale housing programmes were made possible because of the abundance of greenfield sites in these towns. Once swampy villages with low population density and vast tracts of land were acquired by the state via the Land Acquisition Act to build the first HDB flats.

Therein also lies the central limitation of this first approach: There just aren’t that many large empty plots of land where entire estates can be built to rehome people looking for a new home after the leases on their old flats run out.

And as the SERS exercises have shown, residents themselves might not want to move away. Giving people some say recognises the value they attach to their homes.