QUALITY OF LIFE IMPLICATIONS - PUBLIC HOUSING AND FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS WITH A NUCLEAR FAMILY

Abstract

With Singapore's birth rates falling, the government is giving out incentives to encourage couples to have children. One of the ways that the government could encourage people to get married is through providing public housing that caters to their needs since in the Singaporean context, applying for a HDB flat is almost synonymous with marriage. With this in mind, this paper proposes 18 domains of housing to be rated by first-time public housing buyers who are married and are moving into their new flat with their nuclear family. The level of importance of these domains are rated using a five-point Likert scale and the questionnaire survey is conducted with 200 first-time homebuyers. The results have shown that the top five most important domains of housing are: "access and proximity to public transport and infrastructure", "safety of neighbourhood in terms of security and crime rate", "sense of privacy at home", "size of unit" and "design and layout of external faqade and spatial arrangement". The one-way ANOVA tests reveal that respondents' rating of the 18 domains of housing is most significantly affected by their level of education and income. It is also found that respondents are less concerned with socialising and interactions with their neighbours. This dissertation therefore suggests that the government pay more attention to those domains that are ranked highly by the respondents in order to better provide for their accommodation needs. The government could also promote more social interactions between residents by building facilities and amenities which provide additional opportunities for socialisation, especially for respondents who are more highly educated and earn a higher income. This dissertation therefore recommends the provision of more sports facilities since they would be suitable for residents of different gender, age group, race, religion, affluence and education level. This would then increase socialisation among the residents at all levels, helping to create a stronger bond between them as well as promote a healthy lifestyle for them.