Lim Kim San

1965 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Community Leadership from Singapore. Lim Kim San was credited for leading the successful public housing program in Singapore during the early 1960s, which eased the acute housing shortage problem at that time. He is best remembered for tackling the chronic housing shortage, raising low-cost public flats in record time for the teeming masses living in kampungs and overcrowded city shophouses. As chairman of the Housing and Development Board of Singapore, Lim oversaw the massive construction of high-rise, low-cost apartments that will eventually become the main source of housing for Singaporeans.

That time, completing construction of one new apartment every 45 minutes, on the average, at a cost of less than US$3.00 per square foot, the government of Singapore could offer every applicant a new home within three days. These apartments, renting for US$7.00 to US$20.00 per month, offered kitchens, baths, electricity, gas, water and elevators. Erected in blocks rising up to 16 storeys, they were grouped into new communities complete with stores, social centers, schools, recreation facilities and delightful landscaping. Broadening the base of private ownership, these government-built apartments were sold to individual families on easy terms. Economic activity and employment generated by the building of these apartments had been a major element in Singapore’s growing prosperity.