Tag Archives: HDB News

I LIVE in a five-room Housing Board flat. Each month, I pay $63 in service and conservancy charges and $75 for parking.

So for $138 a month, I get: A space in an open surface carpark at the foot of my block that gets bird poo every now and then – or a spot in the covered multi-storey carpark a few blocks away. The common corridor floor is washed once a month, and the bin chute is fogged several times a year. My estate is pretty clean.

But like thousands of HDB residents, I often wonder how my service and conservancy charge (S&CC) payments are being spent, how they could be kept low, and what the town council does to make sure it gets enough bang for my bucks.

The Town Council Management Report, which will debut next year, will, unfortunately, not make me any the wiser. Details of this report were announced last Wednesday, after calls last year for closer scrutiny of town councils. Town councils drew flak last year after news broke that some had invested long-term sinking funds in instruments that turned toxic. Continue reading →

I refer to last Sunday’s article, ‘Married, but no place of their own’.

This problem has plagued many Singaporeans, but what is being done about it?

Young people are encouraged to get married and start a family, but where do they live?

When I was widowed, I was servicing my housing loan from my Central Provident Fund Ordinary Account.

However, when I reached 55, the amount from this account was transferred to my Retirement Account. Hence, I had to sell my house to downgrade to an HDB flat.

The Housing Board said I had to wait 30 months before I could buy directly from the HDB. This was a condition for former private property owners.

This period applied not only to me, but also to my single daughter if she wanted to buy a flat with me.

All our letters of appeal to the HDB and visits to Members of Parliament did not help.

Now that the 30-month period is over, I am back to square one, and the ordeal is not yet over.

There is no HDB flat available. Balloting is a lucky draw – you can ballot for years, but if you do not get a flat, you have to try again.

Even the build-to-order scheme has thousands in the queue.

Like the married couple in the article, I cannot fork out the cash.

Could the HDB tell us what is being done to help people in my situation?

Kordial Kor (Ms)

Source : Sunday Times – 27 Sep 2009