Number of Vacant Rental Flats in Woodlands and Nationwide

The following question stood in the name of Ms Mariam Jaafar –

3 To ask the Minister for National Development (a) whether an update can be provided on the current number of HDB rental flats that are vacant (i) in Woodlands and (ii) nationwide; (b) of which, what is the respective number of flats that needs to be spruced up; (c) what are the reasons for flats that does not need sprucing up to be left vacant; and (d) when does the Ministry expect to clear the backlog of flats that need to be spruced up.

Mr Edward Chia Bing Hui (Holland-Bukit Timah): Question No 3, Sir.

The Minister of State for National Development (Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim) (for the Minister for National Development): Sir, there are about 8,000 vacant rental flats across Singapore. About half of these are not available for new applicants as they are in blocks that are due for redevelopment or are reserved to house existing tenants of flats that are affected by redevelopment. The other half are available to new applicants, of which two-thirds need to be spruced up before they can be let out. In Woodlands, there are 320 vacant flats available to new applicants, and about 220 of them need to be spruced up before they can be let out.

Rental flats that are available to new applicants may be vacant as it takes time for flats to be matched to applicants, depending on the flat type, location and Ethnic Integration Policy limits.

For vacant flats that need to be spruced up, the pace of sprucing works has been adversely affected by manpower shortages in the construction industry during this COVID-19 period. To expedite the works, HDB has appointed additional contractors to supplement HDB’s existing pool of term contractors. HDB is monitoring the situation closely and aims to clear the backlog of flats that need to be spruced up by the third quarter of this year.

HDB will continue to prioritise and expedite flat allocation for applicants who are in urgent need of a rental flat, such as applicants with medical needs or other exceptional circumstances, though we may not always be able to meet their locational preferences.

Mr Speaker: Leader of the Opposition.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Just a few short questions for the Minister of State. In view of the figures he gave for rental flats that are available today, is there a plan to increase the rental flat supply in Singapore? Is it the Ministry's assessment that that number needs to be increased?

The second question is that usage of this word "spruced up". How long does it take to turn around one rental flat, between one applicant who has moved out of the flat, and to get the flat ready for the next person to come in? I ask because if we consider Home Improvement Programme (HIP) timeline of 10 days, for example, to renovate toilets and stuff, then, how long is that period before the flat can be ready for the next tenant to use?

And finally, just very quickly, Mr Speaker, for the waiting times, currently, what is the average waiting time for an applicant who has successfully been allocated a rental flat?

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Sir, I thank the Member for the questions. One is about the waiting time. We shared in the reply in January that it is less than a year.

And for the supply of rental flats, we have enough rental flats to meet the demand and we will continue to watch this carefully.

About the sprucing up, it depends on the condition of the flat that we take over from the tenant. Some may need more time; others can be done quite easily. So, I want to assure Members that we do our best to provide rental flats to all the applicants. And now, with these additional resources, manpower, contractors that we have, we are confident that we will be able to do the sprucing up by the third quarter of this year.

Mr Speaker: Mr Singh.

Mr Pritam Singh: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Just following up on one of the answers. The Minister of State said that it will be less than a year for waiting time. I think one of the recent answers was about five months. My question is, is it now projected to be more than five months or less than five months, in view of the evolving manpower situation?

Assoc Prof Dr Muhammad Faishal Ibrahim: Sir, I am not sure whether Mr Singh has followed the PQs in recent months. I think what he quoted was actually six months – that was in July. But in January, we answered another PQ that we said that it is less than a year. That is recent and the situation remains. What is key is that we are doing our best to do the sprucing up and allocate as early as possible.