Housing and Development Board (HDB)

HDBHUDCDBSS
Housing and Development Board (HDB) is the statutory board of the Ministry of National Development responsible for public housing in Singapore. It is generally credited with clearing the squatters and slums of the 1960s and resettling residents into low-cost state-built housing.

Today, as many as 85% of Singaporeans live in public housing provided by the HDB.

Below are the types of flats.

Studio Apartment
Studio Apartments (SA) are designed to meet the needs of elderly residents. The SAs are sold on 30-year leases, beginning from the date of keys collection.

Location
The SAs are located in estates with well-established transportation networks, with easily accessible facilities and amenities.

Size and Accommodation
SAs come in two sizes:
36 square metres
45 square metres

Features
The SAs are sold in ready-to-occupy condition. Each SA comes with:
– Floor tiles in the entire flat
– Wall tiles for the bathroom/WC and kitchen
– Window grilles
– Built-in wardrobe

2-Room Flat
HDB offers 2-room flats for sale to provide more affordable housing options for the lower income households.

These flats are typically about 45 square metres in area. Each comes with

– A living area that may be subdivided into an extra room, if needed
– A kitchen
– One bedroom with attached bathroom and
– Storeroom-cum-apartment shelter

3-Room Flat
The floor area of new 3-room flats ranges from 60 to 65 square metres.

Each flat comes with:
– A living area
– Kitchen
– One Master bedroom with attached bathroom
– One other bedroom
– Common bathroom
– Service yard and
– Storeroom-cum-apartment shelter

4-Room Flat
The apartment is available in various layouts and ideal for a young couple or a couple with young children, who are starting out and owning their first home.

The floor area size is estimated of 90 square metres, each flat comes with
– A living/dining area
– Kitchen
– One Master bedroom with attached bathroom
– Two other bedrooms
– Common bathroom and
– Storeroom-cum-apartment shelter

5-Room Flat
HDB’s 5-room flats are ideal for a family of 4 or 5 members. They offer a comfortable living space even for an extended family.

With an estimated floor area of 110 square metres, the layout comprises of:
– A living area
– Dining area
– Kitchen
– One Master bedroom with attached bathroom
– Two other bedrooms
– Common bathroom
– Storeroom-cum-apartment shelter

Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) flats are a type of housing unique to Singapore. They were first built in 1974 to cater to a sandwiched class of Singaporeans who can afford something better than the typical public housing, or HDB flats, but yet still find private housing unaffordable. Moreover in the 1970s there were fewer private housing in the country.

The Singapore Government set up the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) Private Limited to develop HUDC flats. These flats stood out for their roomy interiors. The earliest ones had units which ranged between 139 sq m to 158 sq m. Besides their spaciousness, HUDC projects also boasted better amenities, compared to HDB flats, like covered car parks and landscaped grounds.

HUDC flats were developed over four phases from 1974 to 1987. Phase I and II ran from 1974 to the early 1980s and were overseen by the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) Private Limited; while Phase III and IV lasted from 1982 to 1987 when HDB took charge of the building of new HUDC (such as Tampines Court and Ivory Heights).

On the back of waning popularity, the building of new HUDC ceased in 1984. When the HUDC scheme ended, there were already 18 HUDC projects and 7,731 units altogether, such as Tampines Court and Ivory Heights.

In 1995, the Government announced plans to privatise HUDC as long as 75 per cent of the owners in a project agree to it.

Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) is introduced by the Housing and Development Board in 2005. Flats built under the scheme are meant for public housing and developed by private developers. They are built with supposedly better designs and quality and in sites such as Tampines, Boon Keng, Ang Mo Kio, Bishan, Simei, Toa Payoh, Yishun, Tampines, Bedok, Hougang, Jurong West and Clementi.

As HDB does not control the price of the DBSS units being sold, the scheme is poorly received and subsequently suspended