The last of Singapore’s Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) estates has been privatised, it was announced on Friday (Mar 17).
Braddell View estate has obtained the required 75 per cent majority support from flat owners to proceed with the privatisation, said the Housing and Development Board (HDB) in a press release.
With effect from Friday, it will be converted into a strata-titled estate under the Land Titles (Strata) Act, which means it will no longer be governed by the HUDC Housing Estates Act.
Braddell View, which comprises 918 flats and two shops, is the largest among 18 estates that were introduced by the then Housing and Urban Development Company in the 1970s and 1980s for middle-income families.
In 1995, it was announced that HUDC estates could be privatised, as part of the Government’s effort to meet the rising aspirations of Singaporeans to own private housing. It also gives flat owners greater control over the management and maintenance of their estate.
HDB said that with the privatisation of Braddell View, individual owners in the estate will own their respective strata units as well as the common property as tenants-in-common.
It added that “as provided under the Land Titles (Strata) Act, the existing Management Committee assumes the role of the council of the Management Corporation, and the committee members are deemed to have been elected as the council members”.
Braddell View was the last such estate to be offered privatisation as amendments to the HUDC Housing Estates Act needed to be made for residents to have that option.
This is because the estate was built in two phases, in two land parcels with two land expiration dates. Residents will need to top up the lease tenure of the land parcel with the shorter lease to align it with the longer one.
The amendments to the Act, which were passed in 2012, allowed the Braddell View body corporate to levy contributions on the flat owners in order to pay HDB the lease top-up premium, as well as determine how much of the premium each flat owner has to pay.
HDB said that a total of 7,731 dwelling units have now been privatised, marking the closure of the Government’s privatisation programme for HUDC estates.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 17 Mar 2017