Wide angle, panoramic view of typical colorful public housing, also known as HDB flats, in Singapore heartland on a bright sunny day with cloudy blue sky.
Singapore's public housing apartments are also referred to as HDB flats.
  • Singapore's public housing apartments are home to about 80% of the country's resident population.
  • In recent years, some flats have gone on to fetch over 1 million Singapore dollars on the market.
  • HDB estates are designed to encourage social interaction, thus helping make Singapore the world's sixth Blue Zone.

Singapore's skyline would not be complete without its candy-colored, high-rise public housing apartment blocks.

Constructed by the Housing Development Board, these apartments are colloquially known as HDB flats.

Like many Singaporeans, I grew up in an HDB flat in central Singapore — and I've been living in the same one with my family for almost two decades.