HDB pilots new open concept ‘white flats’ in October BTO exercise
Christine Sun, main researcher & strategist at OrangeTee Group, explains that such “white strategy” ideas that give buyers the option to customise the layout of their units were available just in upscale private homes prior to.
For instance, four-room flats today have three rooms. Young partners without children yet might not need all 3 bed rooms currently. A white flat enables them to partition the room with home furniture or glass dividers. Down the road, when they have kids, the spot can be repurposed, and the rooms put in, adds Lim.
“Public housing flats that feature the white scheme can be an original for some buyers”, states Sunlight.
“It lets the layout of the HDB flat to be customised and re-configured as family requires adjustment,” remarks Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore.
Nonetheless, she includes that the new layout might have a potential downside when marketing the unit in the future as it may appeal to a smaller pool of buyers.
An example is Far East Company’s Inessence brand of ultra-luxury houses, like Alba, Boulevard Vue and Skyline @ Orchard Blvd in the prime areas of Orchard Roadway. The “white plan” strategy allowed customers to customise their units.
He points out that those who want to revamp their brand-new flat could even see cost reductions as they will not need to have to demolish wall surfaces, unlike those buying the typical HDB apartments.
HDB will pilot a new open idea design in the October Built-To-Order (BTO) exercise, declared Desmond Lee, Minister of State Development, at a spiel on May 27.
Unlike occurring apartments, these “white flats” will definitely have contiguous living and room space without columns or parting wall structures. The first collection of such white flats are going to be made available at the Kallang-Whampoa BTO project, with 310 three- and four-room units.
According to the HDB, the non-provision of internal dividers wall surfaces for such white apartments will be factored right into the rates. Homebuyers might opt into the new design when they are invited to reserve their level.
Regardless of this, Sun anticipates that any type of possible price contrast would certainly not be considerable as the building of non-structural wall structures is less costly.