HUDC estate at Hougang Ave 2 privatised

[princess_morbucks]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/hudc-estate-at-hougang/1116176.html?cid=TWTCNA&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter


SINGAPORE: The Hougang Avenue 2 HUDC Estate will be privatised after obtaining the required 75 per cent majority support, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) announced on Thursday (May 22).

The estate, which comprises 336 units of flats at Blocks 713 to 720, will be converted into a strata-titled property under the Land Titles (Strata) Act effective May 22, HDB said in a press release.

"Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council has also ceased its responsibility in the management and maintenance of the common properties of the estate, taken over by the Management Corporation Strata Title Plan No 3974," HDB said.

"Individual owners in the estate now own their respective strata units, as well as common property such as car parks and open landscaped areas, as tenants-in-common."

Of the 18 HUDC Estates in Singapore, 15 of them have been privatised since 1995. Two - at Hougang Ave 7 and Potong Pasir - are undergoing privatisation, while the Braddell View estate is in the midst of garnering support for the move.

- CNA/ek

[reporter2]

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/archive/saturday/specials/property/hudc-estate-hougang-privatised-20140523

Published May 23, 2014

HUDC estate in Hougang privatised

336-flat Hougang Ave 2 project is the 15th of 18 such estates to go private

By lee meixian

[email protected] @LeeMeixianBT


[SINGAPORE] The Housing and Urban Development Co (HUDC) estate at Hougang Avenue 2 has been privatised successfully, making it the 15th of 18 such once-public housing estates to do so.

The estate will be converted into a strata-titled property under the Land Titles (Strata) Act, said the Housing & Development Board in a statement yesterday.

The estate, which comprises 336 units of flats at Blocks 713 to 720 on Hougang Avenue 2, has obtained the required 75 per cent majority support for privatisation.

With the privatisation, the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council will no longer manage and maintain the estate's common properties. A Management Corporation Strata Title council will be elected to manage and maintain it.

HUDC estates were initially built as more upmarket public housing for the sandwiched middle class. The scheme, which by the late 1980s had built 18 estates offering 7,731 units, came to an end when the response to its completed flats started to dwindle.

In 1995, the HDB announced the privatisation of HUDC estates to allow home owners control of their estate.

This opened the privatised estates to potential collective sales to private developers. A string of successful sales in earlier privatised estates ensued, including Farrer Court which sold for $1.34 billion in 2007 - still an unbeaten record price for an en bloc sale in Singapore. After that, many more estates launched collective sale attempts but all fell through.

R'ST Research director Ong Kah Seng believes that the latest privatised Hougang estate is not a likely candidate for a collective sale in the short term in a sombre property market strained by cooling measures.

"Very likely, this privatisation will only be able to translate into more resilient pricing for the properties here - meaning prices can hold better and not fall easily - in cautious times.

"And when the property market is on some recovery, there will be some opportunities to find a rightful developer who will acquire the land en bloc, provided that owners' selling prices are realistic," he said.

This is because a huge number of private homes and executive condominiums are expected to be completed in the north-east region from now to 2017. Hence, developers will likely be less willing to pay hefty premiums to acquire the privatised Hougang site over this period.

For the remaining three HUDC estates, Hougang Ave 7 and Potong Pasir have obtained the mandate and are undergoing privatisation, while the last one, Braddell View, is currently garnering support to begin the legal process.

Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan remarked in a blog entry early this year that "symbolically, (this) marks the end of the HUDC era".