Older rental flats also included for upgrades in HIP II

HIP II will focus on common maintenance issues in ageing flats.

OIder rental flats will be eligible for both the Home Improvement Programme (HIP) I and II, national development minister Lawrence Wong said in Parliament.

Wong explained that the HIP II is the second round of upgrading for Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats during their 60th or 70th year to make sure they remain safe and liveable to the end of their lease. The scheme will be rolled out in about 10 years’ time.

“HIP II will be focused on common maintenance issues which occur in ageing flats. We will need to study the specific scope of works, including taking into consideration the condition of our older flats, closer to the launch of HIP II,” Wong noted. 

The minister acknowledged that the program will entail a ‘significant financial commitment’ for the government so they will look into pacing the works to take into account ‘fiscal sustainability and the capacity of our construction industry’.

The minister said that he fully agrees with Chong’s sentiment regarding the need to minimise unnecessary expenditure between HIP II and the Voluntary Early Redevelopment Scheme (VERS). With this, Wong said that they will ensure that public funds will not be wasted in planning the said programmes.

“The details of these programmes will need to be worked out, including when we offer HIP II and when the flats are subsequently staged for VERS and redevelopment,” Wong answered.