Singapore has currently about 1,000 interim rental housing units.
Replying to a question in Parliament, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, Dr Maliki Osman said the Interim Rental Housing (IRH) came about because there were a number of old HDB blocks which were vacated, pending demolition.
To put them to some interim use, HDB decided to rent them out to families in financial hardship requiring urgent temporary accommodation.
As these flats are three-room or larger, co-sharing helps tenants reduce their rental cost.
“Understandably, a co-sharing arrangement is not preferred. But it is manageable, provided the tenants exercise tolerance, consideration and respect. HDB plays an active role in pairing the families; it will take into account factors such as race, religion and family size. HDB will also proactively get the families to meet up, before they are paired. This should help to improve the chance of successful co-sharing,” he said.
Meanwhile Dr Maliki added that the main mode of HDB rental is based on single-family occupancy, in one-room and two-room public rental units.
There are currently about 48,500 such rental units in operation.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 1 Feb 2012