Khaw urges URA to review policy on selling off free spaces

"Have it fixed," he said.

According to a blog post by Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan, it's high time for URA to review its policy allowing developers to sell off spaces that were accorded to them for free to make more profit. 

"In some recent EC launches, super-sized ECs units were offered and snapped up by buyers who did not appear to be from the “sandwiched” households. Understandably, there was public indignation at such deviations (both by some developers and some buyers) from what we had intended ECs to serve," he wrote.

He probed deeper into the matter and found out that URA allows developers to sell free spaces (e.g., outdoor roof terraces). "Developers can use this free space to develop private OR communal roof terraces, and they are NOT counted as GFA (gross floor area)," Khaw added.

Here's more from his blog:

Developers’ selling off free spaces to make additional profit for themselves is not improper under current URA rules. But as more developers do so, with larger private roof terraces and PES, communal space in the development that benefits all residents will correspondingly shrink. There is a further downstream problem as some buyers may be disappointed later on, when they find out that these outdoor spaces that they have paid for are not allowed to be covered up or enclosed.

I have directed URA to review this policy and have it fixed.

Read the entire blog post here.