Hdb Chief: Flats Smaller But Lives Better

[therat 18]

http://news.insing.com/tabloid/hdb-chief-flats-smaller-but-lives-better/id-22113f00

Housing Development Board (HDB) chief Cheong Koon Hean says that smaller flats do not compromise the quality of living in Singapore.

This comes after feedback that flats are becoming smaller over the years and affecting the people's quality of life.

Defending the smaller flats, Cheong says that smaller families in recent times have resulted in more living space.

Furthermore, she feels that a HDB flat can be a very comfortable living environment if furniture and storage space are optimised.

"If people take a bit of effort to do up the interior, it can be an excellent flat," she said.

She added, "Our families are (becoming) smaller. In the old days, we had very large families living in flats. Today, the family (size) is two, three or four."

As a result of rising land costs and the need to keep flats affordable, the size of HDB flats has shrunk by 5% to 10% over the last two to three decades.

For example, a five-room flat in Bukit Batok Central built in 1989 has a floor area of 121sqm, compared to 110sqm for a similar unit built in 2003.

With smaller families, an occupant in a 110sqm five-room flat today will have 31sqm of space, while a resident of a 121sqm five-room flat in the '80s had about 25sqm of space.

Commenting on the matter, real estate lecturer Assistant Professor Lin Lan Yuan from the National University of Singapore (NUS) says that this way of calculation cannot apply to everyone.

He feels that there are also big families out there and smaller flats will affect the quality of life for such families.

Asst Prof Lin also believes that the current 5% to 10% reduction in space is still acceptable but further reductions will cause problems.

"Some bedrooms are so small now that you have no space to turn around after you put a bed and a wardrobe in the room," he said.

He also suggests that HDB could consider flexible designs and allow house owners to make adjustments to the living room and bedroom walls.

[bepgof 20]

Typical talk of a "flower seller", defending her own rice bowls. 3 words: Siao Char Bo.

A doctorate holder with long working experience in URA, MND, HDB should know what are market needs, market trends by conducting objective surveys. Not doing things one-way. But one thing sure that ppls choose smaller foot print because prices are all the way up - cannot afford the big ones, not "don't want" the big ones.

Edited November 12, 2011 by bepgof

[yoongf 11]

We all have to make PR talk once in a while.

It's really a question of whether the audience buy the story.

If land constraint is really the issue, then just build higher HDB flats with 4.8m ceiling height.

Same number of flats, same carpark provision, no additional lift landings, invalid live on grd floor, able bodied live on loft level.

Think out of the box.. go 3D!

[forgotten 1]

Smaller but more expensive. How does debt of 30-35 years contribute to quality living? MIW wants us to have more kids but put us in smaller space + heavier financial debt.

If smaller house = quality living, then why all of the MIWs stay big houses and drive big cars?