THE Housing and Development Board (HDB) is stepping up its building programme this financial year to cater to a growing demand for public housing.
Releasing its annual report yesterday, it said the recovering property market had pushed up sales of its flats and whittled down its stock of unsold flats to 6,000 units, compared to 9,000 a year ago.
HDB chief executive Tay Kim Poh said the majority of flats to be built in the coming year would be concentrated in Punggol and Sengkang, to develop the area and make it more vibrant.
He noted that HDB had hit a 'trough' in its building programme in the last financial year, In the 2005 calendar year, it built just 5,700 flats - a far cry from 1998's 36,600.
Construction will be ramped up from here on, without going into an oversupply.
Mr Tay told reporters: 'The property market is firming. We can feel it because we do see better take-up for our flats now.'
At the close of its financial year in March, HDB had sold 10,100 new flats, compared to 9,433 the previous year.
The financial year just passed saw about 3,500 surplus five-room and executive flats being booked, under a system which allows on-the-spot booking of flats. This was 20 per cent more than the previous year.
Demand has been so encouraging that the plan to put 400 older surplus units in the hands of a property agent on the resale market appears to have been put on hold.
Mr Tay said that some of these flats might now be offered to 'public applicants' instead - families entitled to buy flats directly from HDB, unlike singles and permanent residents, who have to buy flats at higher prices on the resale market.
The housing chief added that the small number of flats which have not been sold for various reasons - 'sometimes because their attributes are not so good' - may still be put on the resale market.
Most of the surplus flats are five-room and executive units located in Jurong West. HDB supplements this stock of units with new projects offering mostly smaller flats.
Mr Tay also said the board would make a 'major thrust' into livening up both old and new towns.
This could involve building new blocks in greying areas to bring in younger residents, revamping commercial centres, helping shop tenants upgrade their businesses, and even introducing new facilities like offices into the towns.
Toa Payoh, for example, is an ageing town which received a shot in the arm from the building of retail and office complex HDB Hub four years ago.
The Hub became a magnet for law firms and property firms, while retailers spruced up shops in the town centre. New 40-storey blocks were also built in the town - the nation's first in public housing.
Meanwhile, an experiment to let a private developer design, build, price and sell flats is taking off. Sim Lian Land, which recently clinched a plot in Tampines to build 616 two-, four- and five-room flats, will be launching them for sale on Saturday.
Asked whether HDB would consider putting some of its properties into a real estate investment trust - which earns rental revenue from its properties and makes regular payouts to investors - Mr Tay said the option was always possible, but that HDB would always bear in mind its prime duty to provide affordable housing and serve residents.
Going forward, HDB will also be honouring its pledge to include comprehensive disabled- and elderly-friendly features in all its new flats.
tanhy@sph.com.sg
