HDB pilots new open concept ‘white flats’ in October BTO exercise
Unlike remaining apartments, these “white flats” will definitely have contiguous living and bed rooms space without columns or parting wall surfaces. The very first collection of such white flats are going to be made available at the Kallang-Whampoa BTO venture, with 310 three- and four-room units.
A good example is Far East Company’s Inessence brand of ultra-luxury houses, like Alba, Blvd Vue and Skyline @ Orchard Blvd in the prime communities of Orchard Road. The “white plan” concept allowed customers to personalise their units.
HDB will pilot a new open approach format in the October Built-To-Order (BTO) exercise, declared Desmond Lee, Minister of Nationwide Development, at a keynote on May 27.
For example, four-room apartments nowadays have three bedrooms. Young partners without any young children yet may not want all three bedrooms currently. A white flat enables them to dividing the room with furniture or glass partitions. Later on, when they have youngsters, the space can be repurposed, and the bedrooms created, includes Lim.
According to the HDB, the non-provision of internal dividers walls for such white condos will definitely be factored into the prices. Buyers may choose right into the brand-new design when they are welcomed to make a reservation for their level.
He points out that those who intend to refurbish their brand-new flat can also see expense benefits as they will not need to demolish walls, unlike those acquiring the basic HDB flats.
However, she includes that the brand-new layout might have a possible downside when selling the unit in the future as it can interest a smaller pool of investors.
“Public housing apartments that provide the white scheme can be a surprise for some buyers”, states Sun.
Christine Sun, main researcher & strategist at OrangeTee Group, points out that such “white scheme” approaches that provide homebuyers the possibility to customise the design of their units were available only in upscale private homes prior to.
“It lets the layout of the HDB flat to be tailor-maked and re-configured as family wants alteration,” comments Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore.
Despite this, Sun forecasts that any potential price contrast would not be substantial as the construction of non-structural walls is more economical.
