Thursday, November 23, 2006
[RealEdge] TodayOnline : Where's the living room?
 This story was printed from TODAYonline | |
 | |
| Where's the living room? Cold facts don't measure up to HDB dwellers' experience We live by 21st, not 20th-century standards Try fitting 4 + 4 into 5 Thursday ? November 23, 2006 Letter from Terence Leong Letter from Eddy Tan Letter from Gwendolyn Lee I REFER to the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) letter, "HDB flats are big enough to meet modern families' needs" (Nov 22). While I appreciate the promptness of the reply and the effort to provide facts and data to substantiate their point, I believe the HDB misses the point of Ms Sangeetha Bysheim' s letter ("Have more kids? It's a squash", Nov 15). The latter was stating her experience of living in HDB flats, which many of us can attest to. Citing facts to show that the decrease in size of flats is a result of family size doesn't change her experience, or anyone else's for that matter. Firstly, it begs an earlier question: Did families of the 1970s and 1980s find their flats to be of a comfortable size? Unless we can verify that bigger families then were happy with the size of their flats, can we conclude that, by logical extension, smaller families would be happier with smaller-sized flats? Secondly, occasional letters such as these reveal the needs of 21st-century families. People today are more likely to want their private space. To therefore do a simple calculation of square metres per person is insufficient as the sole indicator. Thirdly, to claim that those who want more space may buy bigger flats is also a flawed argument, because this doesn't take into consideration the fact that flat prices today have grown exponentially, so even if a family wants a bigger flat, the price might be out of their reach. Fourthly, benchmarking our flat sizes against those of other developed countries makes sense only to a certain extent. It makes sense in terms of city planning and the efficient use of space. But Ms Sangeetha's concern was how flat sizes indirectly affect one's decision to have more children. Hence, to use this justification misses the point, unless we are also saying that we are modelling ourselves on these countries in terms of birth rates (I hope not). Are there existing market surveys on how satisfied flat dwellers and potential buyers are with their space, value for money and so on? Talk on the grapevine suggests that people are not satisfied, while the HDB tells us it is sufficient. Perhaps periodic studies or national surveys may resolve the divided opinions. THE HDB's comparison of average household sizes today to those in 1970s and 1980s is not meaningful without taking into account the differences in standards of living and lifestyles. Regardless of the number of people living in a flat, a certain amount of space dedicated to the kitchen, laundry, toilet and bathroom and so on would still be required. What is left after taking this shared space into consideration is what each occupant will actually get to enjoy. Any reduction in this personal space due to smaller household size hardly makes up for the additional space taken up by facilities not widely available in households of the past ? such as bookshelves, washing machines or study desks. I WROTE a letter similar to Ms Sangeetha Bysheim's to the HDB last year, and got the same explanation that Singapore flat sizes are comparable to Hong Kong's, and that there are bigger units and schemes to allow couples to stay near their parents. We live in a five-room flat. We have two kids and a maid. We would like very much to have another two children but I can't figure out how I am going to house four adults (husband and myself, maid and mother-in-law) and four kids in a five-room flat. We are looking at those jumbo flats in the mature estate near my in-laws. But I was quite shocked to learn that the HDB concessionary loan rate would not be available to us as our household income is more than $8,000. It is quite easy for a dual-income household to hit the $8,000 cap, if the couple are graduates and have been working for three to five years. While we are seemingly well-off on paper, in reality, two-thirds of our monthly disposable income goes to parents' allowance, maid costs and our childrens' expenses. The remainder is spent on the children's education and insurance ? there is little left for our own daily expenses. I strongly urge the HDB to review its policy. We need more living space for the children that we intend to have. We would like to live with our aged parents, whom we can depend on taking care of our children, while the latter can take care of them when they are old. But the current housing policy makes us think twice about this. | |
| Copyright MediaCorp Press Ltd. All rights reserved. | |
Real Estate News Provided Freely
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
SPONSORED LINKS
.
__,_._,___
// posted by Shajahan @ 2:56 PM 