Geography WA2- Notes

Housing GQ1:
Different Types of Housing:
1) Low rise OR High rise
2) Public OR Private housing
3) Number of rooms
4) Landed OR Non-Landed

Characteristics of Formal Housing:

● Who built them?
Built by government or private developers/businesses.

Developed with proper planning process.

Built in an orderly manner.

Equipped with the necessary supporting amenities/facilities

(Eg. Market)
And infrastructure
(Eg. Roads)

● Legal right to occupy land

Houses are built legally on government owned land
Or
Land that are acquired legally by private businesses

Residents who bought these houses

have legal ownership of the house

Provide residents with a sense of security

that they will not get evicted.
● Quality of building materials
Good and high quality building materials.

Government and private businesses

have the financial resources
to purchase such items.

Houses are made from

Concrete, Metal, Steel or Hardwood

Construction conform to
planning authorities guidelines.

Able to withstand weather elements

such as heavy rain and storm

Protect occupants from

basic threat such as fire

Last for a long time.

● Access to basic services

Each household has easy access to basic services
such as clean water, sanitation, waste disposal and electricity

Infrastructures to support basic services

Eg. Water pipes, electrical substations, power lines and sewage pipes
are planned and built together.

Helps to ensure that residents enjoy good quality of life

Characteristics of Informal Housing:
● Who built them?
Built by different individuals (self-built)
who have no knowledge
to construct a house

Built in an unplanned fashion/disorderly manner.

No proper windows or doors.

Not equipped with with the necessary supporting amenities/facilities

and infrastructure.

Also known as slum

or squatter settlements

● Legal right to occupy land

Houses are built illegally on government owned land
or private property that are undeveloped or unsecured

No legal ownership of the house that they built

Residents are highly vulnerable to eviction

They may be forced out of their homes at any time.

Illegal accessible plots of land

are usually limited in space.

Hence, houses tend to be very dense or built close together

● Quality of building materials
Poor and inferior building materials

Occupants are poor city dwellers who used

scavenged material which
may be flammable in nature

Roofs and walls are made

From canvases, wooden plank, repurposed zinc sheets and
cardboards.

Weak foundation (Eg. Houses may be built on stilts)

Houses are weak structure that are at risk

of collapsing or being blown away by strong winds
during heavy thunderstorm,
being flooded on rainy days
or catching fire easily.
 ● Access to basic services
Poor or lack of access to basic services.

Each household has no access to clean water, proper sanitation, waste

disposal, electricity.

Residents resort to illegally

tapping onto nearby
electrical grids, syphoning water from nearby pipes
and disposing sanitary waste
into the ground or nearby rivers.

Poor quality of life

Residents are at risk of injury
and ill health due to electrocution,
consumption of contaminated water
and getting water borne diseases.

Which type of housing provide its occupants with better quality of life?

Formal housing offers a better quality of life

than informal housing.

This is because formal housing

are built by government or private developers
who use good quality building materials.
This ensures residents are safe and protected from hazards.

These houses are built with supporting infrastructures and facilities

and provide its occupants with access to basic services
such as water, electricity, sanitation and waste disposal.
This ensures residents are less prone to diseases.
Why are there formal and informal housing within cities?
As cities continue to grow in population
due to natural population growth and
high influx of rural urban migrants,
the demand for housing also increases.

In many countries cities struggle

to respond to rapid urbanisation

This is because people are coming to cities far faster

than the construction of new formal housing
can incorporate them.

When the government fails to provide

adequate supply of formal housing
in cities to meet the increasing demand,
housing shortages occur.

This increases the cost of formal housing.

Income inequality will affect the access to the type of housing;

formal or informal.

Poor city dwellers who are not able to afford

the high cost of formal housing
are forced to build and occupy
informal housing in squatter settlement.
Housing GQ2:
On what type of land in the city can formal housing be found?
Formal housing is typically found on desirable land within a city.

Government and private developers are able to situate formal housing

near greenery and amenities
away from pollution
and support them with quality infrastructure
such as roads, piped water, electricity and proper waste disposal.

On what type of land in the city can informal housing be found?

Informal housing is usually found at the edge of cities.

However, inside the city,

they are typically located in areas of locally unwanted land use.

These are usually near landfills,

sewage treatment plants, large, polluting industries
or they may be built on steep and unstable slopes.

They are also often neglected and lack infrastructure development.

Informal housing occurs in these locally unwanted land areas.

This is because they are often the only spaces left available in the cities
as many of the
desirable land has been taken up for other formal development.
Why are formal and informal housing located on different type of land in
the city?

Suggest reasons why you would avoid carrying out housing development
next to a landfill.

1) Foul smell emitted may be unbearable to residents.

2) Landfills attract pests that bring diseases and affect the health of nearby
residents.
3) If the landfills catch fire, it may emit airborne pollutants and results in
respiratory problems in residents.

Suggest reasons why you would avoid carrying out housing development in
hilly areas with steep slopes.

1) Costly to build houses on unstable steep slopes as the land has to be

flatten first before any development can take place.
2) Houses built on unstable steep slopes are subjected to landslides which
can cause injuries and deaths to residents.

Suggest reasons why the squatter settlements are found next to industrial
sites.

1) Industrial site provides employment opportunities to slum dwellers.

2) Residents can save travelling time and costs by living near their
workplace.
3) Informal housing lacks access to basic services such as water and
electricity. Locating near to industrial site, allow residents to tap on
existing infrastructure such as water pipes and electrical grid lines.
Suggest reasons why the squatter settlements are found next to train tracks/
rail lines
1) Slum dwellers can make use of transport services conveniently.
2) For people living in poverty, rail lines provide opportunities for slum
dwellers to engage in petty trade such as the selling of food to rail
passengers.

Suggest reasons why the squatter settlements are found next to rivers.
1) Squatter settlements lack access to basic services such as water and
proper waste disposal.
2) Thus, river provides slum dwellers with access to a source of water for
domestic purposes such as cooking, bathing.
3) River may also becomes dumping ground for rubbish.
Explain the factors that affect the spatial pattern of distribution of
formal and informal housing in cities.

1. Land-Use Planning
What is land-use planning?

Land-use planning involves guidelines

drawn up by planning authorities
to regulate the use of land.

Planning authorities typically

practise zoning as a
planning control tool.

Zoning restricts the type of activities

and land-use permitted on specific sites.

What are the benefits of land-use planning?

This helps to:

● shape the layout of the cities.
● optimise the limited land in the city.
● enable various types of land-use
(eg. housing, military, business, industries, part etc.)
to take place.
● ensure the current and future needs of the people are met.
Explain how does land-use planning affects the amount of land available for
housing development and thus influence the supply and affordability (cost) of
formal housing.

If the government allocates

more land for housing development
in its land-use planning policy,
the government can build more formal housing.

This increases the supply of formal housing

and lowers the cost of formal housing,
making formal housing more affordable to all.

Or

If the government allocate less land for housing development

in its land-use planning policy,
the government will not be able to build
as many formal housing as it wants.

The low supply of formal housing

will increase the cost of formal housing,
making formal housing less affordable to all.
2. Choices made by developers (Public & Private)
What is a Central Business District (CBD)?
The CBD in the city centre is where most business and commerce is located.

A CBD can be identified by some of the following:

● high/multi-storey buildings
● department stores, shopping malls or specialist shops
● cultural/historical buildings, museums
● offices, finance, banks, administration
● bus and train stations (transport centres)

The CBD is located in the centre of the city because it is:

● a central location for road/railways to converge
● the most accessible location for workers
● accessible to most people for shops and businesses
In what ways do the different choices made by the following developers
affect the location of formal housing?
1) Private Developers
Private developers
choose to develop housing property for profit.
Thus, they tend to pick locations
that are most commercially viable
such as within close proximity to the CBD.

Land that is in close proximity to the CBD area

is commercially viable and expensive.
This would translate to the high price for houses in CBD area.
Private developers will earn huge profits
by developing private properties in this area.

2) Public Developers
Housing built by public developers
such as the government
tends to consider people’s needs more than profits.
Hence, they tend to pick locations
that are far away from the CBD area.

Land in the CBD is expensive.

Building a house in the CBD area
would translate to high housing prices
which may not be affordable to most people.

Houses located on non-commercially viable land

are usually low-cost and more affordable
to the large masses.
In what ways do the choices made by informal housing residents influence
the location of their house?

Since informal housing lacks access to basic services

(access to water, electricity and sanitation and waste disposal system)
and transportation network
(such as roads),
many tend to occupy locations that would
give them access to these basic services
and transportation network
by tapping on existing infrastructures
(water pipes, electrical grid lines, roads)
or natural features
(such as rivers).

3. Land Prices
Explain why housing is so expensive in ________. (use the terms: demand,
supply, shortages, prices)

There is high demand for housing due to the high population.

However, since there is insufficient land supply
for housing, shortages occur
and push prices up,
Making it expensive to own a house in ________.

Would you sell the private apartments you have developed on the land that
you have leased from the government at a low or high price? Why?

To sell the house at a high price

in order to cover the high cost of buying the land
so as to gain profit.
What would the choices made by the private developers affect the supply of
public housing?

If private developers choose to use the land to build hotels/offices/private

flats,
this would result in less land being allocated
to build public flats
and thus less supply of public housing.
When demand for public housing exceeds its supply,
this will increase the cost of public housing,
making it unaffordable for the urban poor.

How would this affect the urban poor?

They would not be able to afford the expensive house

and would resort to occupying informal settlements/housing
Explain the impact if the government sells most of the land to private
developers.

1) Singapore government sells most of the land

to private developers.
2) Government awards the land
to the highest bidder to earn more revenue
3) Results in high land price.
4) Developers sell private houses
at high cost to
cover the cost of buying the land
and to gain profit.
5) Houses become unaffordable
to the urban poor.
6) Urban poor resorts to
occupying informal housing.
4. Housing Financial Support
How does housing financial support influence the location of formal and
informal housing?
1) Housing Financial Support to developers
The government provides Housing Financial Support to developers
to lower the cost of building houses.
This has given the developers the financial means
and encouraged them to continue to build more houses
and sell them at affordable prices.

2) Housing Financial Support to homeowners

The government provides Housing Financial Support to homeowners
On top of pricing flats at a significant discount to the market,
the government also introduced various housing grants or subsidies
for flat buyers over the years.
The grant amount is pegged to the income bracket,
with higher grant amounts
for those who earned less.
Even those who purchase resale flats
on the open market are eligible for grants.

What happens if there is no financial support schemes?

Without financial support schemes

provided to both housing developers and homeowners,
formal housing in (Singapore)
may be out of reach for many.
Informal housing would then spring up
to accommodate the urban poor.
Describing Trends
Structure:
For Line graph/Table
Marks Trend
General trend
1m In general, there is a (increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend in the (number/percentage) of the (topic)
from (year) to (year)
by around (number)
Anomaly
1m However, there is a (increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend from (year) to (year)
by around (number)
Extra Anomaly (If Have)
1m However, there is a (increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend from (year) to (year)
by around (number)
Description of other trends
1m There is a (gentle/steep)/(steep/steeper)
(increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend from (year) to (year)
by around (number)
1m There is a (gentle/steep)/(steep/steeper)
(increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend from (year) to (year)
by around (number)
Structure:
For Bar Graph
Marks Trend
General trend
1m In general, there is a (increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend in the (number/percentage) of the (topic)
for most of the regions
OR
for (number) out of (number) of regions
OR
for all regions except (anomaly)
Anomaly
1m However, (country)
had the most significant (increase/decrease)
by around (number)
Extra Anomaly (If Have)
1m However, (country)
remained (constant)
at (number)
Description of other trends
1m (country)
had the least significant (increase/decrease)
by around (number)
1m (country)
had the most significant (increase/decrease)
by around (number)
Special Line Graph/Bar Graph/Table (where there is only a general
trend)
Marks Trend
General trend
1m In general, there is a (increasing/decreasing/constant)
trend in the (number/percentage) of the (topic)
for (all) of the regions

Description of other trends

1m (country)
had the least significant (increase/decrease)
by around (number)
1m (country)
had the most significant (increase/decrease)
by around (number)