10 million dollars people.

This was the magic number that Ku Swee Yong, the CEO of property agency Century 21 Singapore, came up with when he wrote a commentary ("No lack of space for 10 million population") in business publication The Edge Property on May 16.

His reason for doing so?

Ku felt that Singaporeans have been brought up to accept statements about Singapore's land scarcity "as a gospel truth" without questioning the meaning of scarcity and without looking at the growth of the nation.

Below are three reasons why he thinks that Singapore can "comfortably" accommodate a population of 10 million: 

1. Singapore’s land size has increased by 100 square kilometers in the last 35 years.

During the 35-year period between 1980 and 2015, Ku noted that there was a 16 percent increase in Singapore's land size from 617.9 sqkm to 719.1 sqkm.

In contrast, Ku also observed that Singapore's population grew 129 percent from 2.41 million to 5.54 million. This meant that there was a 97 percent increase in population density from 3,907 people per sqkm to 7,697 people per sqkm.

2. More housing units in existing HDB towns and new residential precincts have increased Singapore's capacity to accommodate more residents.

Ku pointed out that there are 535,144 more units set aside for the next decade in existing HDB towns such as Tampines, Woodlands, Jurong West, Bedok and Punggol.

In addition, Ku noticed that four more new residential precincts are being planned.

They include the area around Paya Lebar Air Base, Pulau Brani, Tengah and Marina South.

Ku predicted that this could well create an additional 534,000 units.

3. Intensifying land use and better housing planning had also helped.

As Ku noted, land use had become more efficient over the years with better planning and integration with public transportation and changing lifestyles.

He cited the examples of old estates such as Commonwealth, Tanglin and Dawson, where old 10-storey blocks were replaced with new 40-storey blocks that are built closer and integrated with amenities such as carparks, clinics, supermarkets and community facilities to boot.

He also observed a change in one's attitude to private housing.

For instance, there is an increase in single person households, leading to the shrinking in apartment sizes. Ku said that the smaller average size of apartments has led to an increase of about 20 percent more residential units than what is planned for each government land parcel sold.

In conclusion, Ku calculated that Singapore can comfortably house 5.54 million people at present.

With his housing unit tabulations, he thinks Singapore can add 1.1 million more housing units without further reclamation of land, which means Singapore can welcome 4.5 million more people.

This will result in the magic 10.04 million people (5.54 million + 4.5 million) he proposed.

No further reclamation of land required, no planning parameter needed.

I guess Ku just needs to convince the 5,000 people who turned up at Hong Lim Park two years ago.

Top photo from Pinnacle @ Duxton Facebook.

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