Sustainable Development Goals

(a) Proportion of urban population living in slums is 0% as Singapore does not have any slums.

(b) Close to 80% of Singapore’s resident population live in public housing flats and the vast majority own their flats. There are also macroprudential safeguards in place for the purchase of public housing e.g. Mortgage loans for public housing are capped at 30% of a borrower’s gross monthly income.

Almost 100% of Singapore’s population lives within 500m of a public transport stop.

Singapore is a city state that is already highly urbanised. Beyond supporting population growth, land is also used for a variety of strategic objectives, such as national defence and economic trade. Singapore takes a long-term approach towards land use planning to ensure that we have sufficient land to grow sustainably to meet our present and future needs, and provide a high-quality living environment for all Singaporeans. Singapore's development is guided by the Long-Term Plan and the Master Plan where we have balanced different competing needs to achieve sustainable development economically, socially, and environmentally. We constantly find ways to optimise our land through building higher, co-locating uses and recycling land for redevelopment as leases expire so that we can set aside land and space for parks, nature areas and nature reserves. We also set aside land for strategic reserves to meet unanticipated needs.

(a) Guided by the national strategic masterplan Our SG Heritage Plan, the National Heritage Board administers various initiatives to safeguard and promote Singapore’s cultural heritage, including the preservation of Singapore’s national monuments and first UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the management of the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage and national museums. In addition, the Urban Redevelopment Authority has developed policies, incentives, and guidelines to facilitate building conservations by building owners.

(b) Although Singapore is a small island city state with one of the highest population densities in the world, it is a home to rich biodiversity and ecosystems that span a whole range of natural habitats such as primary dryland forest, tall secondary forest, freshwater swamps, rocky shores, mangroves, mudflats, seagrass beds and coral reefs. Singapore's efforts on biodiversity conservation to retain natural areas while integrating biodiversity into the urban environment as much as possible, are guided through the implementation of key strategies, including the National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (2009, updated with national targets in 2019), the Nature Conservation Masterplan (2015), and the City in Nature vision (2020).

Singapore is not prone to natural disasters.

Singapore's land use plans take into account major land needs and trends in our local and global environment, including population dynamics and balanced territorial development. The two key plans that guide our urban development are the Long-Term Plan which maps out strategic land uses and infrastructure needs over 50 years and beyond, and the Master Plan which translates development strategies into detailed plans to guide the development of land and property in the nearer term.

Plans are regularly reviewed to allow us to cater for a range of possibilities, taking into account evolving factors that affect the built environment – including social, demographic, technological and environmental trends, the global environment, as well as the changing needs of Singaporeans.