Over 16,000 Flats Delivered Since Jan 2020; Number of Projects Completed in 2021 Expected to Exceed Pre-Pandemic Numbers
- To keep our housing projects on track amid the pandemic, HDB has been leaning forward to support our contractors, including rolling out an extensive suite of assistance measures to help ease their financial pressures. This has enabled HDB to continue to deliver homes to flat buyers amid severe disruptions to the construction industry caused by the pandemic. Since Jan 2020, HDB has completed 25 residential projects, and delivered more than 16,000 new homes to Singaporeans.
- Among the 25 projects, 11 were completed in 2020 and another 14 completed in 2021 to-date. Another 5 more projects are expected to be completed by the end of this year, barring unforeseen circumstances. This is over 70% more than the number of projects delivered in 2020, which was disrupted by the 2-month Circuit Breaker and then slow resumption of construction activities. The projected completion of 19 projects in 2021 will exceed the 17 projects completed in 2018 and 2019 each, before the pandemic
- For all the 25 projects delivered since Jan 2020, the waiting times ranged from 2.4 to 5.3 years, with an average waiting time of 4.1 years. Among them, 11 projects, or more than 40%, were delivered in less than 4 years (with 8 delivered in less than 4 years and 3 delivered in under 3 years). For ongoing BTO projects, the average waiting time is also comparable at 4 to 5 years, including delays brought about by the pandemic. Overall, barring unforeseen circumstances, the average waiting time of BTO projects to be delivered from now till end-2024 is about 4.4 years (see Table B).
With projects progressively being completed, more flat buyers have collected the keys to their new homes. From Jan to Sep 2021, about 10,350 new flats were delivered to flat buyers. This has surpassed the 6,340 and 9,380 flats delivered over the same period in 2020 and 2019 respectively.
- HDB has been working closely with our building contractors, to secure the necessary resources they need to complete their projects, including manpower and material supply. We have also recently introduced additional assistance measures to ease the financial pressures brought about by the pandemic-induced spikes in construction costs, including both manpower and non-manpower costs. In addition, we have extended the period of protection against steel price fluctuations, and will supply our contractors with more concreting materials, at protected prices, for local precast production and cast-in-situ operations. HDB has also been checking in regularly with our building contractors and consultants to address any problems early and render assistance to alleviate pain points where necessary.
- Meanwhile, HDB is continuing to work closely with the contractor, Expand Construction, to render various assistance and to expedite construction works. These include working with the contractor to engage a second source of precast supply and supporting the contractor to diversify their sources of precast components, to address the disruptions to its precast supply from Malaysia arising from Malaysia’s Movement Control Orders. At the same time, we are also prioritising manpower allocation for this project to help the contractor expedite construction works, while ensuring that adequate safety management measures are in place on site. We will continue to do more to help the contractor complete the project, so that our flat buyers can collect their keys and move into their new homes as soon as possible