Inquiries into the Economics of Land

Yang Han

For Singapore, land scarcity is a threat inculcated from young. From Civics and Moral Education lessons as early as Primary One, the physical limitations to Singapore as a cold hard fact is constantly instilled, ringing a perpetrual siren of insecurity in all Singaporeans’ hearts.

Truth be told, Singapore’s land anxieties are no more life threatening than the country’s water issues, but the extravagant investmentss in the drive to expand the nation’s territories is much more costly than sustaining the lifeline of water supply: at S$15 per m2, Singapore imported 300 million m2 of sand just in the year of 2001, of which construction usage is on average 4.3 million m2 per year1. Since independence than 50 years ago, Singapore grew 13% of its current land mass from reclamation of its coast 2. However, with the stoppage of supply of sand material from neighboring countries, the expansion has to come to a halt. Singapore’s ceaseless dredgers have finally hit a grinding stop.

But can Singapore remain satisfied with its current land area?

When Singapore once again feels the urge to expand its territories, this time we re-examine the value of the land that

Singapore holds as its reserves. Land value can no longer remain planar, but is now associated with its volume that allows it to be effectively useful above the sea level. This new economics depends on the most efficient distribution of the commodity of sand as reclamation material. The basic construct of land should be re-read in the new context, as previously reclaimed land should be reassessed for opportunities that allow it to achieve a net gain of usable land area, though utilizing the same absolute volume.

Instead of the typical flat uniform reclamation, a new scenario can be extrapolated, where Singapore finally embraces the only resource that it has in abundance: water, to achieve a new equilibrium of a hydrological nation state. Singapore will finally be completely independent of geographical resources, as the nation becomes self-sufficient in providing material for expansion.

With the new land order, it inspires new imaginations and romanticism of the hydrological urban state. A more suitable building typology better adapted to the conditions of tropical Singapore can be derived, that generates a model of true water front living for the tiny island nation.

1 Bill Guerin, ‘The Shifting Sands of Time – and Singapore’, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EG31Ae01.html (accessed 11 July 2010)

2 De Koninck, Rodolphe, Julie Drolet and Marc Girard, An Atlas of Perpetual Territorial Transformation. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2008 p15.