Saturday, April 22, 2006

636 Zion Road households get offer of new HDB flats

Five 33-year-old blocks to make way for redevelopment
By Daryl Loo
 
RESIDENTS of five 33-year-old HDB blocks in Zion Road will be resettled in the Housing Board's latest redevelopment exercise.
 
The 636 households, in blocks 88 to 92, are being offered replacement flats the HDB is building at the corner of Havelock Road and Ganges Avenue.
 
The 1,200 new units - studio apartments and three-, four- and five-room flats - will be completed in 2011. Residents will be able to register for the new flats in the middle of next year.
 
Under the Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers), owners will receive compensation for their existing flats based on market value, and will be offered a 20 per cent price discount on new flats.
 
 
Dr Lily Neo, adviser to the Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng ward where the flats are located, said about 44 per cent of residents are more than 50 years old, and many of these older residents have asked for the smaller and cheaper studio apartments.
Studio apartments are on a 30-year lease, unlike others on a 99-year lease, and sell for about $60,000 to $75,000 each. In contrast, a four-room flat in the Zion Road area can sell for about $280,000 on the resale market.
 
Said Dr Neo: 'Some older residents want to downgrade from their old flats into these studios so they can have some money left over for their retirement.'
 
Also to be torn down for redevelopment are 33 shops, two eating houses, and seven rental shops at the foot of the five affected blocks.
 
The HDB will hold an exhibition on the redevelopment projects at Kim Seng Community Centre from tomorrow to next Saturday.
 

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// posted by Shajahan @ 8:00 PM


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