Govt to gather feedback on new housing initiatives: Lawrence Wong

Singapore

WHILE details of the newly announced housing polices are being worked out, the government will reach out to Singaporeans to gather feedback and understand their concerns to fine-tune the policies, said National Development Minister Lawrence Wong on Tuesday evening.

Speaking to the media at the sidelines of a public forum at shopping mall Bugis+, Mr Wong said the government understands Singaporeans are worried and unsure about what to expect, and have raised questions about the future of public housing, particularly as the building stock gets older and nears the end of lease.

A number of policies were announced early, said Mr Wong at the event organised by feedback unit Reach, to share the broad outline and roadmap of what people can expect about the future of housing.

In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a number of housing initiatives including the new Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (Vers), which will allow more owners of Housing Board flats to benefit from redevelopment before the 99-year leases on their flats expire.

On Monday, the Ministry of National Development also announced it is expanding the lease buyback scheme to five-room and larger flats, while reviewing an easing of the rules for using CPF savings to buy older flats.

Announcing these policies before the details are finalised is to give Singaporeans assurance of the long-term plans for housing, said Mr Wong, who is also the Second Minister for Finance.

"There are a lot of implementation details to be worked out, so we are going to take this opportunity over the next few months or years to start engaging more groups of Singaporeans, understanding their concerns and getting feedback and ideas so that we can fine-tune and eventually work out the implementation details," he added.

Not just with the Vers scheme, he said, but HDB's Home Improvement Programme (HIP) and HIP II, which will be launched when the first flats reach 60 to 70 years old about a decade from now, as well as the Lease Buyback Scheme and the use of CPF funds for shorter-lease flats while safeguarding retirement adequacy.

On Vers, which will eventually replace the existing Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) for redevelopment purposes, Mr Wong said there are still sites that will undergo the Sers programme. "But we will eventually reach the limit and clear all sites. Once we do that, we will transit to a Vers programme."