Innovative real estate legislation to husband Singaporeís scarce natural resource

Government intervention has however, succeeded to a large extent in managing this seemingly intractable problem by putting into place an array of legislative measures. These are underpinned by a system of land administration and policy based on the English doctrine of tenures and estates in land which Singapore inherited as a result of colonisation in the early 19th century. The range of measures includes the leasehold being the dominant method of landholding, wide powers of compulsory land acquisition, the implementation of a public housing system for more than 87% of the nationís population, the restriction on foreign ownership of residential property and planning and conservation legislation. In addition, there has recently been passed, highly controversial legislation affecting strata-title property ownership in Singapore which may call for a re-definition of the term `freeholdí tenure. This paper examines how the Government has grappled with this problem of land scarcity; in particular, it considers how innovative legislation, which has the underlying objective of allocating judiciously this scarce resource has been devised to regulate the real estate sector and optimise land use in Singapore.