Two ageing Tiong Bahru HDB blocks fail to get enough votes for HIP by narrow margin
Permanent resident households are not eligible to vote
[SINGAPORE] Two blocks of Housing Board flats in Tiong Bahru built in 1949 have failed to get enough votes to undergo the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) – by a razor-thin margin.
Residents there told The Straits Times (ST) they were disappointed at the outcome as they had hoped for improvements to their ageing flats.
At Block 35 Lim Liak Street, only one “yes” vote was needed to pass the 75 per cent threshold, poll results published on Nov 21 showed. Of the block’s 15 households, 11 voted for the HIP, while four did not vote.
Of the 24 units in Block 34 Kim Cheng Street, 16 households voted in favour of the HIP, two voted against and six did not vote. Two more votes were needed to pass the voting threshold.
The two blocks were among 29 in Tiong Bahru that voted earlier in November on whether or not to carry out HIP improvements. Voting was successful for the other 27 blocks. All four-storey walk-up flats were built by the Singapore Improvement Trust, the predecessor to the HDB.
The HIP, which is offered to older HDB flats, was launched in 2007 to spruce up older housing estates and resolve common maintenance problems such as spalling concrete. It is carried out only if at least 75 per cent of a block’s eligible Singapore citizen households have voted for it. Permanent resident households are not eligible to vote.
If the vote passes, residents have to undergo some compulsory works such as repairing spalling concrete but can opt out of other improvements such as bathroom upgrading.
Robin Loi, 70, who has lived in his three-room flat at Block 34 since the 1970s, said he had hoped the HIP would replace the cast-iron pipes in his service yard as well as his rusty front gate.
The retired administrative officer said the pipes had been leaking over the past 20 years and burst three years ago. Replacing the pipes himself – which was offered for free as part of the HIP’s mandatory improvement works – would set him back about S$300.
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“I’m disappointed, but there’s nothing much I can do now,” he said.
Another elderly resident, who declined to be named, said he had hoped the rusty cast-iron pipes could be replaced. He added that he wanted to opt for the senior-friendly fittings on offer, such as grab bars and slip-resistant bathroom floors, as he lives alone.
Of the polling results for 24 precincts published on the HDB’s website, these two Tiong Bahru blocks were the only unsuccessful ones.
Tanjong Pagar GRC MP Foo Cexiang said in a Facebook post on Nov 25 that a “sizeable proportion” of units in the neighbourhood were rented out. Several owners were uncontactable or felt little incentive to support the HIP, including those who had just moved in after doing major renovation works, he added.
He also noted that the small number of units in each block was a challenge, as the vote of each unit carried a high weighting.
“Each negative and absentee vote would set back the chances of success significantly,” he added.
Based on a preliminary poll that the HDB conducted earlier in 2025, all 29 blocks would have been able to cross the 75 per cent threshold, Foo said. A previous poll in 2019 had shown that 10 blocks would not meet the threshold and a decision was made to defer the HIP.
Foo told ST that he will speak to the HDB on the options for these two blocks and is planning to engage the residents over the next two weeks.
Mary Lee, 57, said she and her husband had tried to contact their neighbour, who moved out in October but still owns the flat, to inform him about the polling, but their calls and texts went unanswered.
“We reached out to many of our neighbours over this. Even if we don’t need HIP for our unit, voting in favour of HIP will benefit others who do. Unfortunately, we were one vote short,” said Lee, who lives in Block 35 and runs an IT training centre.
Loi added: “Some units here are tenanted, many have new owners and are newly renovated, so they may not want to go through the trouble of HIP.”
A resident in Block 35, who declined to be named, said he did not vote as his flat did not need the improvements offered.
Foo said in his post that residents who have lived there for more than 30 years – some of whom operate stalls in Tiong Bahru Market – had tried to get in touch with as many neighbours as they could to inform them about the poll and arrange for them to vote via proxies.
The MP said he joined the Residents’ Network and HDB officers to knock on doors and also organised a gathering during the voting period to raise awareness about the HIP.
ST has contacted HDB for comment. THE STRAITS TIMES
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