After 17 Years, Home Upgrading Schemes To Get A Makeover

Source : The Straits Times, 20 Aug 2007

Focus on small practical repairs in flats, inclusion of non-standard items in precinct upgrading

OWNERS of Housing Board flats will have something new to look forward to as the home upgrading programmes get rejigged.

One of the biggest changes comes in the form of the new Home Improvement Programme (HIP).

It will replace the current Main Upgrading Programme and will focus on small practical repairs like spalling of ceiling concrete and new entrance grilles and new toilets in flats.

The new programme was announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong during his National Day Rally speech together with a slew of upgrades to housing in Singapore.

The HIP is targeted at what Mr Lee called ‘middle-aged estates’, which are estates with flats built more than 20 years ago such as Bukit Batok, Jurong East and Hougang.
They are not quite as old as Queenstown but not quite as new as Punggol.

The programme will be piloted in Yishun and Tampines.

A new Neighbourhood Renewal Programme (NRP) will replace the current Interim Upgrading Programme (IUP).

Where the latter was only for individual precincts, the former will combine two or more precincts to take advantage of economies of scale.

Said PM Lee: ‘Bigger area, larger scale, we can plan more and better facilities.

‘We will still have standard items like barbecue pits, community gardens, reflexology footpaths, covered walkways and so on. But now we can also consider non-standard items like a street soccer court or a skating park.’

What these items are will be decided by the residents.

Said Mr Lee: ‘We will have a budget, a menu; you will have a town hall meeting…You decide what you want for your own community.’

In explaining the decision to replace the two schemes, Mr Lee noted that they had been around for 17 years and said: ‘I think it’s time to upgrade the upgrading programme.’

The changes were welcomed by residents in middle-aged estates and property analysts.

Mr Mohamed Ismail, chief executive of real estate firm PropNex, saw the HIP as a scaled-down version of the MUP. And that would mean more people will benefit.

‘The MUP tends to favour creating additional space like an extra room. The details of the new one are not out yet but it seems like it focuses on enhancing individual units. In that case, it would require fewer resources and can be done faster.’

Mr Eugene Lim, vice-president of property firm ERA, agreed and added that such a scheme would make upgrading work more tolerable.

‘MUP is quite disruptive. It’s like living in a construction site for two years. The HIP looks to be more focused on improving liveability, and won’t involve a lot of hacking.

‘I think as a lot of flats are getting older, this move addresses a real need,’ he said.

Taken together, Mr Ismail said the HIP and NRP will ‘definitely enhance the neighbourhood overall’.

Engineer Lim Shin Yen, 27, who bought a four-room flat in Woodlands with her husband last year, hopes the new programmes will be unrolled faster.

‘On the one hand, I think I’d like more major work done on the flat. On the other hand, this way we won’t have to wait so long to get upgrading,’ she said.