Preferential Home Search in Urban Settings: Fid-Bau Portal

Preferential Home Search in Urban Settings

Labiba, Dina / Frank Ratnam, Mark / Liqing, Zhang / Norvyani, Dini Aprilia

Accessibility to amenities is an essential consideration for renting or purchasing a home. Therefore, ease of access and proximity to amenities is something Singapore’s Housing and Development Board (HDB) emphasises on for the planning and development of housing towns in Singapore. Most amenities can be categorised as transport amenities, healthcare amenities or education amenities. Improving the availability and access to such amenities is an effective way to meet the housing needs of Singaporeans and HDB tries to ensure that the needs of Singaporeans are taken care of. This study presents a geospatial evaluation of access to various amenities from HDB blocks and housing towns. It features a proximity analysis (walking time and distance) to and from each amenity to HDB blocks. Factors like personal preference of individuals are considered in querying a suitable located HDB to assist home search using the Closest Facility Analysis tool in ArcGIS. Weights are assigned to distance to amenities to personalise home search and this provides a potential buyer with an additional tool to spatially query on a list of homes to choose from. The study shall provide potential buyers with a list of suitable options using which a multiple criteria search in terms of nearby amenities can be used to look for a suitable home. The study also aims to identify housing towns in Singapore which lack ease of accessibility to amenities in terms of time and distance and this can be used for planning of setting up amenities near these HDB blocks to make them more saleable. This study sheds light on housing towns which require improvements in the provision of amenities for residents.