Land Reclamation through landfill and Draining swamps:

Singapore had been using Land Reclamation as early as 1820. As Singapore is a small island surrounded by water, large-scale land reclamation by landfill has been carried out in different parts of Singapore, places which are near lake or reservoir, mainly at the South-East, South-West and North-East of Singapore, for instance, Punggol. Since 1960s. Swamps along the Singapore River were filled to provide land for early settlers. Other than reclaiming land from the places that are near lake or reservoir, but also from the sea, such as Marina City.

The picture shows how the land is used after land reclamation in East Coast. For your information, East Coast is one of the areas that practised land reclamation.

In 1961, reclamation of mangrove swamps in Jurong spearheaded Singapore's industrial plans and other land reclamation projects. In 1963, the land reclamation project in Bedok provided space to house Singaporeans.

More land is also needed for rapid economic growth, such as expanding commercial and industrial activities, and developing infrastructure like the highways, MRT and LRT systems, and other facilities.

After reclamation in Punggol, and at any road junctions, we are able to see LRT system tracks to enable LRTs to work and to facilitate transportation and accessibility, even though it is just a small estate.

When the land is located at the city centre in Singapore, the prices will most likely be more expensive than the areas away from the city centre. Developers are showing more interest in good residential areas, as home buyers had been showing interest when a new project launches. Prices of houses had then been brought down, so that it could lure developers to replenish their land bank. Research had shown that more than 7,200 new homes were sold in the first half of year 2009, a great increase as compared to 4,200 units sold in year 2008.

Among them was a plot at Dakota Crescent, which attracted a bid of at least S$130 million. Buyers will only bid high for projects which they believed in, so that they will earn high profit and the residents can enjoy leisure and relaxation such as shopping centres.

This picture shows a large land area in Punggol, 22,497.3 square metres is held for bidding, and it states by application under the reserve list.

Maximising use of land:

On a same piece of land, many things are build on it. This includes housing, recreational (shopping centre, playground, coffee shops, supermarkets, churches etc). These buildings are also verticalized rather than occupying a big piece of land. This is maximising use of land in Singapore.

For instance, Housing Development Board(HDB) flats in Punggol are built near to each other and vertically. Also, instead of leaving the space in between the buildings as its own, the HDB had built a Roof Garden, which is a recreational place for residents to walk about, relax and also young children to play in.

The buildings in Punggol estate, are built high, in other words, verticalization.