Proposed changes to the Housing Developers (Control & Licensing) Act will cover all housing developers and not just those developing projects with more than four units.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) said this is so that buyers of units in these smaller developments can also benefit from the protection accorded under the Act.
The suggestion was made during a month-long consultation exercise on proposed changes to the Act as well as the Housing Developers Rules (HDR).
The public also gave their thumbs-up to URA’s proposed requirements for property developers to provide accurate information in the showflats and more information on the housing units to prospective home-buyers.
Some 100 respondents gave their feedback in response to the URA’s online consultation.
Key proposals that received strong support include requiring developers to obtain home-buyers’ consent for changes to the housing project; ensuring that showflats depict the actual units accurately; as well as publishing the prices of units sold on a weekly basis.
In addition, some respondents also gave suggestions on ways to further enhance market transparency and better protect home-buyers’ interests.
These include requiring developers to provide a further breakdown of the strata floor area by room, such as stating the sizes of individual bedrooms and kitchen areas in addition to the areas of other spaces such as balconies and private enclosed spaces.
They also recommended that URA publishes on its website a list of developers who have contravened the provisions under the Act and had their sale licences suspended.
The URA said it will consider these suggestions and finalised the proposed changes in due course.
Source : Channel NewsAsia – 4 Aug 2011