Forum: Consider having fewer parking spaces in HDB estates
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According to the Land Transport Authority’s Range-based Parking Provision Standards, developers must provide parking spaces for at least 50 per cent of the dwellings in residential areas in the city plus Marina Bay, and at least 80 per cent of the dwellings in residential areas everywhere else (except the few car-lite districts).
This seems excessive considering that in 2023, only 33 per cent of Singaporean and permanent resident households owned cars.
Perhaps the current regulations are intended to accommodate the higher car ownership rates of those living in private housing. But if so, it makes little sense to impose the same standards on public housing, where car ownership rates are lower.
My experience bears this out. In the Telok Blangah estate where I live, there are two multi-storey carparks, both of which are at best only half-full.
A country as land-scarce as Singapore surely cannot afford to be building infrastructure that is so underutilised. A more sensible approach would be to have separate parking standards for public and private housing.
The precious land freed from constructing unnecessary carparks could be used for more pressing social needs.
We could build larger flats that are more conducive for raising children, or add more eldercare and childcare facilities within our estates.
Lim Jia Yi
