National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the Housing and Development Board (HDB) is containing construction costs as much as it could even though they have gone up significantly recently. HDB is doing this by simplifying some of the projects or by combining them so that there are more economies of scale. A recent example is the Punggol Sapphire project which has more than a thousand units against...
hdb news
Chip Eng Seng has won a $124m HDB contract to build five residential blocks in Sengkang. The contract also includes the construction of a multi-storey car park, with a planned community facility on the first floor and a precinct pavilion. Construction is expected to begin this month, and be completed by 2011. The new contract brings Chip Eng Seng's current order book to a total of $755 million. Earlier...
I REFER to “Building Brics for HDB” (May 27) from Wong Weng Keet. The new flat application process aims to encourage flat-buyers to think through their housing plans and options carefully before they apply for a flat. We would like to clarify that under the revised procedures, the priorities under the Married Child Priority Scheme (MSCP) are not “cancelled out”. Those applying under MSCP will...
Only two bids were received in the tender for a residential site at Simei Road, which is being launched under HDB's Design, Build and Sell Scheme. Property developer Sim Lian Land put in the top bid of S$52 million. The price works out to S$1,472 per square metre of gross floor area. AMK Development put in the lower bid of S$37.2 million or S$1,055 per square metre of gross floor area. The parcel spans...
The Housing Development Board (HDB) is tapping on the minds of Singapore Polytechnic (SP) students, to remake Punggol Town. The call for ideas is also extended to the general public. Gabriel Seah, a landscape and architecture student from SP, said: "The first thing that came to my mind will be wetlands. As we all know, the discharge of storm water into the river, or even into the sea is unfiltered. So...
Proposed flat application system gives ownership of choice and saves on effort I APPLAUD the Housing and Development Board’s (HDB) recent initiative regarding balloting under the build-to-order (BTO) scheme, which aims to deter people from throwing their names into the flat-balloting hat frivolously. However, I feel that the root of the problem lies with the balloting system - it is like a lucky-draw,...
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan has said that the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has no intention to raise the administrative fee for the application of new flats. Speaking on the sidelines of the Draft Master Plan Exhibition on Friday, Mr Mah said the fees will remain at the current S$10, so as not to deter genuine flat buyers. He also justified the need to revise the application rules...
More than 770,000 HDB households will be receiving S$63 million worth of rebates for their Service and Conservancy Charges (S&CC) and rents in fiscal year 2008. The Finance Ministry said all eligible households will receive S&CC rebates. Three and four-room households will receive two months worth of S&CC rebates. And among low-income rental households, eligible one-room households will get...
The Housing & Development Board (HDB) has revised the application process for its Build-to-Order (BTO) and Balloting Exercise (BE) modes of sale to address recent increases in non-selection of new HDB flats. The changes will take effect from the May 2008 BTO exercise. Under the revision, first-timer applicants who reject two chances to select a flat will have their first-timer priorities removed for a...
The government will spend about S$30 million to develop key features of the new Punggol Waterfront Town. Most of that amount - S$25 million - will go towards the man-made Punggol Waterway, which will be constructed next year. The waterway will be the focal point of activities, according to plans by the Housing and Development Board (HDB). Professional planners have been invited to submit designs and...