Buildings in Singapore
25% of Singapore is built on reclaimed land and nearly all of the city was built after 1945. There are high rise business buildings which dominate the skyline. But still the original Raffles hotel is still there together with some areas with original, pre 1945 semi-detached houses, although most of these cater towards the tourist market rather than local residents and their businesses.
Most of the people live in apartment blocks on a 100 year lease. Because the flats are privately owned, in the form of a lease, they do not develop slum type areas. We were surprised to see a job advertised for an assistant at a juice shop where the pay was $7 per hour. With the apparent high standard of living we were expecting to see higher pay, even for the unskilled.
We did see a few grand old houses on big pieces of land, but these are rare and worth a tremendous amount in re-development potential.
All around development is happening, great high buildings are being built, land is being reclaimed, an F1 race track set up and the while harbour is shifting and dispersing enormous amounts of cargo.
- The variety is amasing
- some are just too big
- some are just too strange
- but all are exciting and interesting to see
Next – Talking the duck to water