Housing Scene

March 2020

‘Housing Scene’ brings you a quick round-up of HDB’s latest news, policies and initiatives. Stay connected with us as we deliver the newsletter directly to you every month. If you have any feedback, tell us here.

This month’s Housing Scene brings you up-to-date with our latest measures to support the diverse housing needs of Singaporeans, such as seniors and new flat buyers. We’re also rolling out new programmes to keep our #HDBeautiful towns vibrant, green and sustainable. Read on for more:

Helping Home Buyers Access Flats Faster

Currently, unsold flats from Build-To-Order (BTO) exercises are first offered at Sale of Balance Flats (SBF) exercises. Flats not taken up at SBF exercises are then offered through the Re-Offer of Balance Flats (ROF) exercises, before finally being made available for open booking if they remain unselected.

To help buyers get their homes earlier, we will do away with the ROF exercises, and offer the unselected flats from the SBF exercises for open booking throughout the year. With these changes in place, buyers now have these ways to buy an HDB flat:

More details can be found on HDB InfoWEB.

More Help for Our Seniors

HDB offers a range of housing monetisation options for seniors who wish to supplement their retirement income, and enjoy their golden years with greater peace of mind. To better meet their needs, we are enhancing the Silver Housing Bonus (SHB) and Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS).

Here are the monetisation options available, and the latest enhancements to the schemes:

Beyond monetisation options, we have also been studying the concept of assisted living for seniors, where housing is integrated with care services. Feedback on the assisted living concept during focus group discussions has been positive, and we will be piloting this new housing option at Bukit Batok in May 2020. Designed with seniors’ needs in mind, the new housing typology will come with a service package to support ageing in place.

Stay tuned, as more details such as service offerings and indicative flat prices, will be announced in the coming weeks.

Upgrading and Rejuvenating HDB Towns

To ensure that your HDB homes and towns meet your changing needs, we also upgrade and revitalise the living spaces both within and outside of your flats.

Through the Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP), we have brought direct lift access to the vast majority of the 5,300 older HDB blocks that did not previously have full lift access. Currently, there remain about 150 blocks where the LUP cannot be implemented, due to prohibitive costs or site constraints.

We will continue to explore ways to bring lift access to residents in these blocks. In the meantime, those in urgent need of direct lift access, due to medical conditions or mobility reasons, can tap on a Lift access Housing Grant of up to $30,000 to buy another flat with lift access.

Beyond block level enhancements, we will also be rejuvenating four more towns – Ang Mo Kio, Bukit Merah, Choa Chu Kang, and Queenstown – under the Remaking Our Heartland (ROH) programme. ROH is a comprehensive blueprint to renew and revitalise HDB towns and estates. Whether it’s upgrades to the Town and Neighbourhood Centres, enhancements to community spaces, or improvements to connectivity networks, there’s plenty to look forward to as these towns undergo a makeover!

Artist’s impressions of possible changes to the Town Centre, (from left) linkway, neighbourhood park, and Neighbourhood Centre

If you live, work or play in any of these selected towns, share your ideas with us and help us shape their future! We can’t wait to see how these towns will transform into #HDBeautiful heartlands for all to enjoy.

More Sustainable and Liveable HDB Towns

Did you know HDB has been driving sustainability efforts in public housing estates? In recent years, we piloted the HDB Greenprint programme at Yuhua and Teck Ghee estates, and test-bedded smart and sustainable initiatives in Punggol Eco-town.

To expand on these efforts, we are introducing the HDB Green Towns programme – an ambitious 10-year plan to make HDB towns more sustainable and liveable by 2030! By reducing energy consumption in HDB towns, recycling rainwater and cooling HDB towns, we aim to reduce annual energy consumption in HDB towns by 15% within the next decade.

Learn more about our Green Towns programme and other innovations that bring smart and sustainable living to our HDB estates.

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