Yu: Awards are a means of recognising excellence and quality
Yu Shi Ming, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Real Estate, has been a don for more than 35 years. He is fondly called “Prof” by his former students, even though some of them are already middle-aged, in top management positions and left school more than 20 years ago. “That is why I have remained an academic for so long,” says Yu. “One of my greatest satisfactions is seeing my former students doing well in the industry.”
Yu is also well known for his extracurricular activities as a Justice of the Peace. And he does not just solemnise the marriages of his former students. In fact, Yu is so sought-after that he is ranked among the “40 most popular Justices of the Peace” on KiasuBride.com.
Prolific in publishing articles in the areas of real-estate appraisal, housing, urban planning and facilities management, Yu has presented many papers at international conferences too. He has served as a member of several government organisations in Singapore, including HDB, the Council for Estate Agencies, the Valuation Review Board and the West Coast Town Council.
Yu is also one of the three co-authors of a book released earlier this year titled Singapore’s Real Estate: 50 Years of Transformation, which traces the evolution of the city state’s real estate. He recently led the production of a sleek video for the Department of Real Estate that presents Singapore’s “Smart City” and “Smart Nation” initiatives. The video is now available on YouTube. “As a city state and a global city, Singapore benefits from a greater flow of information and the sharing of ideas, as well as innovation and technological advancements,” observes Yu.
Government’s push to automate
Singapore’s building quality has improved over the years. One of the main contributing factors is legislation. Over the past seven years, the government has been trying to wean the construction industry from its reliance on cheap foreign workers by imposing a quota on these workers and gradually increasing the levy on them since July 2010. “Our reliance on foreign labour has its roots in our meritocratic and achievement-oriented policies, such that locals shun the construction industry,” says Yu.
In an effort to encourage more companies to adopt new technology, URA has stipulated the use of 65% prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) in some land tenders, such as mixed-use development The Wisteria, executive condominium The Brownstone and private condo Clement Canopy.
The government is also pushing through its vision of an “Eco-Smart” City to spur green innovation and help mitigate the impact of climate change. “Many of the members of Redas [Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore] are guided by robust corporate environmental sustainability principles and are strong advocates of eco-friendly buildings that promote good passive design, façade performance and effective natural ventilation to reduce carbon emission and enhance the well-being of occupants,” said Augustine Tan, president of Redas, in a speech on Oct 4 at a Mid-Autumn Festival lunch held by the association.
Many developments have also adopted energy-efficient systems and pneumatic waste conveyance systems as well as dual chutes for refuse and recyclables. Tan also said: “In the future, we can expect our developments to become smarter, greener and more resilient.”
Importance of planning and design
In January 2013, the government released a population white paper titled “A sustainable population for a dynamic Singapore”. It projected that the city state could have a population of 6.5 million to 6.9 million by 2030. Yu believes the target is achievable, and that there is a need for Singapore’s population to increase further. “We don’t have a hinterland,” he points out. “And high density can be mitigated by good planning and design.”
Singapore’s population in 2017 is around 5.6 million, up just 0.1% y-o-y, according to the Department of Statistics. Population density is 7,796 per sq km, which is the world’s third highest after Macau (20,848 per sq km) and Monaco (15,254 per sq km), according to IndexMundi. Even though Hong Kong has a population of 7.36 million, its density is 6,682.5 per sq km and it ranks fourth after Singapore in terms of density.
Yu believes the areas in Singapore that will undergo the biggest transformation over the next few decades will be Jurong Lake District, earmarked by the government as Singapore’s second CBD; the Kallang Basin area, which will be revitalised, along with the Kallang River, with parkland, community spaces and bicycle trails; and the Southern Waterfront City, when an area of 1,000ha (three times the size of Marina Bay) is freed up for development, following the relocation of the ports in Tanjong Pagar and Pasir Panjang.
Yu believes planning and design are critical for Singapore’s success in land use and for the real estate industry. He is one of the five judges for the inaugural EdgeProp Excellence Awards, to be held on Oct 23. “Awards are a means of recognising excellence and quality,” he says. He also sees such awards as motivation for developers to offer better-quality projects and embrace new technology.
Source: URA
The Kallang Basin area is one of the locales in Singapore that are likely to undergo the biggest transformation in the coming decade
This article, written by Cecilia Chow appeared in EdgeProp Pullout, Issue 802 (Oct 23, 2017).