First Five Year Plan- Housing

By 1960, Singapore's housing deficit had gotten out of control and the SIT had constructed a
total of around 24,000 homes. Singapore gained independence in 1959, and on February
1st, 1960, the local government established the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to
address what was perceived as an urgent housing crisis plaguing the island.

The HDB got to work right away and by the end of 1962 had constructed 21,232 housing
units in total, falling just under 3000 units short of the SIT's approximately 33-year
construction timeline.

In actuality, in 1960, the HDB inherited the SIT's unfinished apartments as its very first flats.
The three 7-story apartment buildings on Stirling Road in Queenstown were finished in
October 1960, and their occupants moved in at the beginning of 1961.

The HDB focused its construction in a select group of towns and neighbourhoods during its
initial five-year building program from 1960 to 1965, including Queenstown, Bukit Ho Swee,
Alexandra, MacPherson, St. Michael's, and Tanjong Rhu/Fort Road. The majority of the
HDB apartments were finished by 1962.

The first HDB block had a "child health and maternity clinic" on the first floor when it was
unveiled by the HDB in 1963. All HDB blocks had residences constructed on the ground floor
prior to that time. Selegie House, termed a "government skyscraper" when it was unveiled in
1961, was built in 1963 as part of the HDB's first urban regeneration project in the city
center.

Selegie House, which included three apartment buildings with the largest reaching 20
stories, was the HDB's pride and pleasure when it was finished and opened on May 31,
1963, under the leadership of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew. Because Selegie
House was when it was finished the tallest public housing tower ever constructed in
Singapore, it has a special place in the history of public housing. It was also finished in a
record-breaking 18 months, and it graced the cover of the 1963 Annual Report of the HDB.

A large portion of the Bukit Ho Swee fire site had been rebuilt by 1964, and Block 22
Havelock Road, the highest building in the area with a 16-story construction, had been
constructed.
In the year of Singapore's independence, HDB completed Block 37 Circuit Road, a mega
block of McPherson House. It was a double T shape, basically built with long blocks of
panels on each side and had two vertical wings. With 570 apartments, it was at one time his
largest HDB block in Singapore. Today it still has the second most apartments on any block.
https://www.docomomo.sg/happenings/hdb-public-housing-1960-1980-the-first-two-decades
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_1589_2009-10-26.html#:~:text=In
%201965%2C%20the%20HDB%20completed,was%20living%20in%20HDB%20flats.
https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/infopedia/articles/SIP_2017-10-11_092937.html
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40102546