Public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely surrounded by t ...

comprises government development programmes which aim to provide ownership of land or homes to the citizens of Brunei. They are managed by the Housing Development Department (), a government department under the Ministry of Development. There has been three main public housing programmes in the country, namely the National Housing Scheme (), the Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme () and the National Resettlement Scheme ().

History

Public housing was first initiated in the 1950s by the government in the form of mass resettlement programmes for the residents of

Kampong Ayer Kampong Ayer is a prominent traditional settlement in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei. It comprises neighbourhoods of traditional houses, schools and mosques built on stilts above the Brunei River near the capital's city centre. It ha ...

, the stilt settlement on the

Brunei River The Brunei River ( ms, Sungai Brunei) is a river which flows through Brunei and empties into the Brunei Bay towards the north-east direction. The Istana Nurul Iman, the official residence of the Sultan of Brunei, stands on its banks. The Brunei ...

. In that decade there were cholera and smallpox epidemics which greatly affected the residents; at that time more residents settled along the banks than the middle of the river and hence more prone to the diseases. Therefore, the initial aim of the housing programme was to relocate the residents to places on land which are less susceptible to the spread of the diseases. However, the programme eventually shifted its aim to allow the Kampong Ayer residents in owning a home on land. The first resettlement programme was carried out in 1952 in which a housing estate was developed in Bunut. There were then succession of resettlement programmes in the following few decades, and subsequently various resettlement estates appeared which are all located in

Brunei-Muara District Brunei-Muara District ( ms, Daerah Brunei dan Muara; Jawi: برونائی-موارا ضلع) or simply Brunei-Muara is one of the four districts of Brunei. It has the smallest area among the four districts, with , yet is the most populous, w ...

. In the 1970s, the government conducted analysis on the housing demands in the country and eventually came up with the present housing programmes.

Lambak Kanan RPN Lambak Kanan, Kampong Perpindahan Lambak Kanan or simply Lambak Kanan is a public housing estate in Brunei-Muara District, Brunei, on the outskirts of the country's capital Bandar Seri Begawan. The total population was 19,833 in 2016. Establ ...

became the first area to be developed as the estate of beginning in 1984.

Programmes

Although there has been three main housing development programmes conducted by the government, only two are currently pursued, namely the National Housing Scheme and the Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme.

National Housing Scheme

The National Housing Scheme (, commonly abbreviated as ''RPN'') aims to provide homes to the citizens of Brunei regardless of ethnic or racial background. Houses are granted in turns according to the year of the application by the applicants.

Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme

In contrast with the National Housing Scheme, the Landless Indigenous Citizens' Housing Scheme (, commonly abbreviated as ''STKRJ'') aims to provide private lands, which often comes with completely-built homes, specifically to or the indigenous citizens of the country. The are essentially the indigenous Malays, which consist of the seven ethnic groups officially recognised by the government, namely the

Brunei Malay The Brunei Malay language, or Kedayan (, Jawi: ) is the most widely spoken language in Brunei and a lingua franca in some parts of Sarawak and Sabah, such as Labuan, Limbang, Lawas, Sipitang and Papar.Clynes, A. (2014). Brunei Malay: An Ove ...

Kedayan The Kedayan (also known as Kadayan, Kadaian or Kadyan) are an ethnic group residing in Brunei, Federal Territory of Labuan, southwest of Sabah, and north of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. According to the Language and Literature Bureau of B ...

Bisaya Visayans ( Visayan: ''mga Bisaya''; ) or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. When taken as a single ethnic group, ...

, Tutong, Dusun, Belait and Murut.

National Resettlement Scheme

The National Resettlement Scheme () has been a housing programme carried out by the government to aid the residents of

in resettling on land. It is currently not active or that the relocation programme is handled as part of the other two housing programmes.

Estates

The housing estates are developed in all four districts of Brunei, generally as part of existing villages or other survey areas, or in their vicinity. Each estate constitutes only one of either housing programmes. However, a village or area may have more than one type of estates. Some estates may also have enough population comparable that of village settlements and hence they are designated as village subdivisions, the third- and lowest-level administrative divisions of the country. A few estates even have larger population and end up having more than one village subdivisions. Nevertheless, each village subdivision of a housing estate functions similar to the local village, including having a or village head as its community leader as well as a Village Consultative Council () as the community association. There may also be presence of community infrastructure such as a primary school and a

community centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

. As Brunei is predominantly Muslim, a mosque may also be built for the Muslim residents to perform

Jumu'ah In Islam, Friday prayer or Congregational prayer ( ar, صَلَاة ٱلْجُمُعَة, ') is a prayer ('' ṣalāt'') that Muslims hold every Friday, after noon instead of the Zuhr prayer. Muslims ordinarily pray five times each day accordin ...

or Friday prayers, as well as a religious school which provides the Islamic religious primary education compulsory for Muslim pupils in the country.

References

{{Brunei topics Welfare in Brunei