THE condominium-like The Premiere@Tampines is back in the news - this time for a snaking queue stretching more than 150m outside its showflat-cum-booking office yesterday morning. The development first made headlines in October, when 5,700 people applied for the 616 units of the project, an experiment by the Housing Board to allow the private sector to design, build, price and sell public housing flats.
The mostly five-room flats in Tampines Avenue 6, built by developer Sim Lian Land, proved a hit, as they came fully fitted with air-conditioning units installed.
Sim Lian opted to sell the flats by ballot but found itself with 120 unsold units on Wednesday after more than half the 1,200 applicants selected by ballot dropped out when they found flats elsewhere, among other reasons.
It then decided to let the other 4,500 applicants book these unsold flats on a first come, first served basis. It informed these people via its website and by SMS on Wednesday.
The scramble for the flats started on Wednesday night. By about 11pm, a queue of 75 early birds had formed at the showflat-cum-booking office. They dispersed after Sim Lian gave them queue numbers. But a new line of applicants, unaware of the earlier queue, formed at around midnight. They did not disperse despite a downpour at about 11am yesterday.
Tempers flared when queue-number holders turned up, but this was resolved when it was explained that numbers had been given out to the early birds.
Some applicants also complained they received SMSes later than the others. Sim Lian's executive director, Ms Diana Kuik, said the SMSes were outsourced to another company and technical constraints may have caused them to be staggered.
Teacher Farah Shauna Mohamed, 24, who was queuing with her sister, said: 'It's madness'.
tanhy@sph.com.sg
