Source : Sunday Times - 28 Dec 2008
Two-room HDB units to be built mainly in non-mature estates
The two-room flats that the Housing Board is building again will mainly be in non-mature estates and will come with elderly- and disabled-friendly features.
These 45 sq m units will have ramps at the main entrance and the toilets, and have wider toilet doors for easier wheelchair access.
The eye-viewer at the front door will be larger than current ones while switches and electricity outlet points will be placed higher so the elderly do not have to stoop to reach them.
Lifts will stop at every floor and larger fonts will be used in signs around the blocks.
Moving across blocks will also be easier as ramps and wider walkways will be installed for the wheelchair-bound.
These features are not found in existing smaller HDB flats.
The HDB gave these details to The Sunday Times in response to queries about recent news that the board will be ramping up the supply of three-room and smaller flats to around 4,000 over the next two years.
The HDB had stopped building two- and three-room flats in the 1980s as Singaporeans had wanted bigger flats. But these cosy units made a comeback in 2004 because of renewed demand.
National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told Parliament last month that more of such small flats will be built next year. They will help more low-income families own homes and also enable those who need to downgrade because of financial difficulties to do so, he said.
Noting that the smaller flats cater mainly to lower-income families, the HDB spokesman said: ‘To ensure that they remain affordable to the lower income, they would mainly be offered in non-mature estates where the selling prices are lower.
‘The smaller flats would be offered in a variety of estates so as to offer buyers a wider choice.’
A gauge of the demand for smaller flats can be seen in recent sales launches.
Under the HDB’s quarterly sale exercises in July and October this year, the take-up rates for three-room and smaller flats were 100 per cent and 97 per cent respectively. There are currently about 6,000 two-room and 210,000 three-room units in the open market. They cost between $77,000 and $275,000 each.
Besides catering to the lower income, small flats will meet the needs of an ageing population too. With the first batch of baby boomers due to hit 65 by 2012, the HDB expects the number of elderly folk to increase rapidly.
‘The smaller flats will provide an avenue for the increasing elderly population to monetise their existing larger flat by downgrading to smaller flats,’ the spokesman said.
It is thus timely for HDB to start stocking up on smaller flats now, considering it will take a few years for the flats to be built, she added.
This is good news for housewife Doris Leong, 57, who lives with her husband in a five-room flat in Hougang. Their three daughters have moved out after getting married.
Mrs Leong, who suffers from arthritis and has problems climbing stairs, said moving to a small unit is an option and welcomed elderly-friendly features like lifts that stop at every floor.
‘We don’t need a big flat for two people,’ she said. ‘With the extra money from the sale of our flat, we can live comfortably and maybe even make trips overseas.’
SPECIAL FEATURES FOR 2-ROOMERS
~ Ramps at the main entrance and toilets
~ Wider toilet doors for easier wheelchair access
~ Switches and electricity outlet points will be placed higher so the elderly do not have to stoop to reach them
~ Lifts will stop at every floor
~ Signs around the blocks will be in larger point sizes
~ Ramps and wider walkways to make moving across blocks easier for the wheelchair-bound
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