Mr Gerald Giam Yean Song (Aljunied): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her reply. I just want to find out what is the age of the oldest block that has yet to be selected for HIP and where is that block located in, as far as constituency is concerned? And just now, the Senior Minister of State mentioned that one of the factors, besides age, it is also about the geographical spread of the blocks. How does this factor into HDB’s decision on choosing blocks based on geographical spread?
Ms Sim Ann: Mr Speaker, I do not have the specific answer to Mr Giam’s first supplementary question.
As for how we look at geographical spread, this actually reflects to a very large extent, the history of our HDB building programmes because, in the past, we have been developing new towns, and this results, for instance, in flats of a certain age being bunched in certain localities.
But we also know that, generally, once the flats get to a certain age, there will be reasons why residents would like to see a refresh, so we bear this in mind. There will be times when there are towns with more flats that are of a certain age, but we try to also provide a spread, so that more residents will be able to see refresh going on in their estates.
Ministry of National Development
27 February 2023
https://sprs.parl.gov.sg/search/#/sprs3topic?reportid=oral-answer-3105
Office of the Leader of the Opposition 