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Average booking rate of 83% for 3Gen flats: HDB

SINGAPORE – Mr Tan Chow Hua had longed to have his wife and children spend more time with his mother but simply could not afford the space and have her move into their five-room flat in Jurong West.

Mr Tan Chow Hua (top right) with his family. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

Mr Tan Chow Hua (top right) with his family. Photo: Robin Choo/TODAY

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SINGAPORE – Mr Tan Chow Hua had longed to have his wife and children spend more time with his mother but simply could not afford the space and have her move into their five-room flat in Jurong West.

So when applications for the Housing and Development Board’s three-generation (3Gen) flats opened in 2013, he jumped at the opportunity. It also came at a time where his 86-year-old mother’s health had begun to deteriorate.

“I wanted my wife, two daughters (and my mother) to stay together to have a closer bond, all along I wanted that. But because of that space constraint… we could not ask her to come over,” said the 49-year-old education officer. When his mother’s legs started to give her problems, it further cemented his decision to have his family living under one roof, added Mr Tan. 

In 2013, the HDB piloted these new type of flats targeted at multi-generation families who wanted to live together. Each 115sqm flat – slightly larger than the five-room flats – has four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

To be eligible, the applications must form a multi-generation family that includes at least a married or courting couple and their parents. There is also a minimum occupation period of five years during which the rooms cannot be sublet. Thereafter, the flats can be resold to only other eligible multi-generation families.

As of Dec 31 last year, the HDB has offered 1,100 of such 3Gen flats across 18 projects. Between 2013 and 2015, there was an average booking rate of 83 per cent, with families booking 651 out of 786 units, said the HDB in a media fact sheet. 

Three projects in Yishun, Punggol BayView and Tampines GreenRidge – 84, 52 and 56 units respectively – were fully taken up. Among these 651 units, 47 per cent were taken by first-time buyers while the remaining units were booked by second-timers.

Mr Tan and his family will be among the first to move into the completed 3Gen flats in Boon Lay View, where occupants have started collecting their keys since Dec last year.

Currently, Mr Tan and his wife, as well as his two teenage daughters – 15 and 17 years old – have taken up two of the three bedrooms at their five-room flat while the last room is being used as a study room. His mother and her domestic helper live in a 4-room flat, also in Jurong West. 

Not only will his mother be able to move in with them, he pointed out that the extra room with an attached toilet at the new unit will be more convenient for his mother who has walking difficulties.

Each of his daughters will also have a room to themselves.

“(The new flat) fits into our needs. In terms of personal space, everyone has their fair share,” he added.

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