- BTO construction is back on track with no delayed projects under construction
- Some projects expected to complete three to six months ahead of schedule
- High construction quality scores (CONQUAS) achieved for pandemic-delayed projects

All 1,651 flat buyers of the final two pandemic-delayed HDB housing projects – Punggol Point Cove (Phase 2) and Kempas Residences – have been invited to collect the keys to their new homes, closing the chapter on HDB’s five-year journey to deliver all the pandemic-delayed BTO projects to homeowners. To date, 975 households (about 88% of 1,102 booked units) at Punggol Point Cove (Phase 2) and 375 households (about 68% of 549 booked units) at Kempas Residences have already collected the keys to their new homes. The remaining households will be collecting their keys by end-March.

2 With the completion of the final two projects, HDB has completed all 75,800 flats across the 92 housing projects that were affected by COVID-19-related disruptions. To date, a total of 71,417 flat buyers (about 99% of 72,101 booked units) have collected their keys and are progressively settling into their new homes.

3 All other HDB housing projects currently undergoing construction are on track to be delivered on time, with a few projects expected to be completed about three to six months ahead of schedule.

Five-year Journey to Recovery

4 In 2020 and 2021, the construction sector was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing unprecedented delays to both public and private sector projects. The two-month Circuit Breaker in 2020 (from 3 April 2020 to 1 June 2020), a slow resumption of construction activities thereafter, and stringent safe distancing management requirements at construction worksites, significantly impacted the progress of construction projects. Between 2021 and 2022, Malaysia’s Movement Control Orders (MCO) and lockdowns in other countries disrupted the inflow of manpower and key building materials which were critical for HDB housing projects (e.g. concrete, steel, precast components, etc.), further exacerbating the situation.

5 The manpower crunch for HDB projects under construction peaked in mid-2021, with about half of the projects having less than 80% of the manpower required to stay on schedule. It was only in October 2022 – more than two and a half years after the onset of the pandemic – that HDB was able to restore manpower manning across all our construction projects to pre-pandemic levels.

6 As a result of these pandemic-induced challenges, almost all housing projects under construction were delayed past their original Probable Completion Dates (PCD) communicated to flat buyers. The only exception was Keat Hong Verge which was completed on schedule in March 2023, through the close partnership between HDB and our construction partners. Of the remaining 91 projects:

27 projects (or 30%) were delayed by between one and six months from their original PCD. Among them, four projects, i.e. Ang Mo Kio Court, Northshore Residences I, Senja Heights, and Tampines GreenBloom, were delayed by less than three months.
62 projects (or 68%) were delayed by between seven and 12 months. This included six projects where the two original main contractors were terminated for failing to meet critical construction progress targets despite various support measures extended by HDB¹. To minimise further delays, HDB moved quickly to source for suitable contractors to take over the projects and worked closely with them to facilitate the transfer of works within about a month – as compared to the three to four months that it would typically take to call a fresh tender for new contractors to take over the balance of works.
2 projects – Waterway Sunrise II² and Anchorvale Village³ were completed beyond their Delivery Possession Date (DPD). Despite significant efforts to bring these projects back on track, the total delays exceeded one year – the longest delays among all the pandemic-delayed projects. These projects also marked the first time HDB has not been able to deliver projects by their legal contractual date.

Housing Assistance and Compensation Provided to Flat Buyers

Over 1,300 Flat Buyers Assisted with Alternative Housing Options and Cancellation Waivers

7 Recognising that these construction delays had greatly inconvenienced flat buyers, HDB had leaned forward to provide assistance depending on their individual circumstances. Flat buyers who were unable to find alternative interim housing arrangements with family members and relatives, or on the open market, could apply for temporary rental flats from HDB while awaiting the completion of their new flats. Since 2020, HDB has assisted about 900 flat buyers to rent a subsidised flat from HDB for temporary accommodation.

8 For flat buyers who decided to cancel their BTO flat booking to buy a resale flat due to urgent housing needs, HDB also waived the cancellation forfeitures taking into consideration their individual circumstances. In total, HDB granted waivers to about 450 flat buyers who cancelled their flat applications.

$5.5 million in compensation paid to over 1,000 flat buyers of Waterway Sunrise II and Anchorvale Village

9 Flat buyers of the Waterway Sunrise II and Anchorvale Village BTO projects, which were delayed beyond their respective DPDs, were compensated for the delays, in accordance with the COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act (COTMA). In total, $5.5 million in reimbursement was paid to over 1,000 flat buyers across the two projects. To ease the administrative processes for our flat buyers and allow them to resume their life plans as soon as possible, HDB compensated eligible flat buyers the maximum reimbursement sum that they were eligible for without requiring them to submit any claims/proof of the expense. All flat buyers received their reimbursements within two months after completing their flat purchase and accepting the Settlement Agreement with HDB.

Financial Assistance and Support Rendered to Contractors to Mitigate Delays

10 To help our contractors overcome the severe challenges posed by the pandemic, HDB rolled out assistance measures to accelerate project progress and minimise delays to flat buyers. These included helping the contractors secure critical construction materials supply (e.g. steel and concreting material) at protected prices; facilitating advance and more frequent payments to the contractors to ease their cash flow situation; as well as co-sharing of costs with contractors, including the costs for rental of equipment and site maintenance arising from prolongation of construction contracts. We also worked closely with various partners to help our contractors secure critical manpower to expedite construction works. In total, HDB disbursed over $430 million in financial assistance to alleviate the financial pressure on our contractors resulting from the increase in manpower and construction materials costs as well as compliance costs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

11 To catch up on delays, HDB worked with contractors, Government agencies and other stakeholders to allow quieter works to be carried out after hours⁴ and on weekends for 67 projects, in strict compliance with permissible noise levels. This enabled us to extend the total available construction hours and catch up on lost time to minimise project delays.

High CONQUAS Scores Achieved for Pandemic-delayed Projects

12 With the strong collaboration of our contractors and relevant agencies, we were able to keep delays at 12 months or less for all, except for two projects which exceeded the DPD. In the process, every effort was made to ensure that safety and quality would not be compromised. Despite the challenges posed by the pandemic, HDB achieved an average CONQUAS⁵ score of 95 across all the pandemic-delayed projects that have been assessed from FY 2020 – 2023. This is higher than the average score achieved by private residential developments over the same period. It is also higher than the average CONQUAS score of 92 achieved for HDB projects in the pre-pandemic years of FY2016 – 2019.

HDB’s Building Programme Back on Track

13 Minister for National Development Desmond Lee said, “The COVID-19 pandemic had a long-lasting effect on the construction sector and HDB’s building programme. We would like to thank our industry and agency partners for their strong support and resilience which have helped to keep projects moving forward. We are also deeply appreciative to our flat buyers for their patience and understanding as we worked hard to catch up on delays.

14 With the COVID-19 construction challenges behind us, we have returned to normalcy in our BTO construction progress. We expect all HDB housing projects currently under construction to be delivered on time, with some expected to be completed ahead of schedule by about three to six months. One of which is the Toa Payoh Ridge BTO project, which was originally slated for completion in 3Q2025 but is now expected to complete 3 months ahead of its schedule, in 2Q 2025. This is the first project since the pandemic in 2020, which will be completing earlier than the original PCD communicated to buyers. Barring unforeseen circumstances, we expect a few more projects to be completed slightly earlier of their PCDs this year and next year.”

15 At present, there are 113 HDB housing projects under construction, an increase from 99 projects a year ago, arising from the ramp-up in BTO supply in recent years. For 2025, HDB is on track to complete about 17,000 flats across 27 projects, providing more quality homes for Singaporeans.

HDB's Pandemic Completion Infographic

¹HDB terminated the services of Greatearth Corporation Pte Ltd and Greatearth Construction Pte Ltd (collectively referred to as Greatearth) in August 2021, and CKR Contract Services Pte Ltd in July 2023.

²The construction of Waterway Sunrise II was affected by the failure of its original contractor, Lian Ho Lee Construction (Private) Limited, and then severely delayed again due to labour shortage and disruptions to material supplies brought about by the pandemic. This resulted in a delay beyond the project’s DPD delay.

³Anchorvale Village was severely delayed due to labour shortages and disruptions to material supplies caused by the pandemic. In addition, the tight site area and the development’s complex design also limited how much the main contractor could expedite construction, without compromising the quality of the project and safety to workers.

⁴Construction works are carried out during the stipulated hours of 8am to 7pm from Mondays to Fridays, and 8am to 5pm on Saturdays. Quieter works are scheduled to take place outside these hours, in compliance with the National Environment Agency’s (NEA) lower permissible noise limits.

⁵All HDB projects are scored under BCA’s Construction Quality Assessment System (CONQUAS), the objective national standard for assessing the construction workmanship quality of building projects.

All Buyers of Last Two Pandemic-Delayed BTO Projects Have Been Scheduled to Collect Their Keys