Smaller Flats Supply Upped

Source : The Straits Times, Dec 18, 2008

THE Housing Board will offer 4,000 smaller flats over the next two years, marking the biggest comeback for such flats which has not been built for 20 years.
Next year's supply of 2,000 three-room and smaller flats will almost double this year's supply of 1,163.

Prices of 20-year-old resale flats nearby are going at $175,000 to $180,000 for three-roomers - higher than the launch price, HDB figures showed. -- ST FILE PHOTO

HDB's move closely follows National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan's announcement in Parliament last month that there will be a steady supply of smaller flats for lower income families and for those who need to downgrade to smaller flats amid the current economic crisis.

The HDB had stopped building two- and three-roomers in the 1980s as growing families in Singapore's developing years fuelled demand for bigger flats.

But in 2004, three-roomers were re-introduced, and in 2006, HDB said it would resume building two-roomers to meet increasing demand.

HDB also launched a new project on Thursday - Dew Spring @ Yishun - under its build-to-order scheme.

It will offer 504 four-room, 144 two-room, 215 three-room units - the largest number of smaller flat types out of all of HDB's projects launched this year.

HDB's deputy chief executive, Ms Tan Poh Hong, told reporters that HDB has revived smaller flats on a larger scale as 'there are are more people who wil need to downgrade to smaller flats, as well as first timer families who would also like to start with smaller flats to be financially prudent'.

Two-roomers at Dew Spring will start at $76,000 to $90,000; three-roomers from $120,000 to $146,000 and four-roomers are priced at $197,000 to $238,000.

For the first time, HDB also released comparable prices of resale flats in the same area to demonstrate the affordability of the new flats launched.

Prices of 20-year-old resale flats nearby are going at $175,000 to $180,000 for three-roomers - higher than the launch price, HDB figures showed.

HDB has launched 6,600 homes so far this year under its BTO scheme, which builds flats when a certain demand is reached.

Of these, 883, or 13 per cent, were two-room and three-room flats.

It plans to launch another 1,180 units in the next two weeks before the year is out, which will include a further 280 studio apartments, two-room and three-room homes.