Uproar over new rental flats going up
Pasir Ris, Tampines residents upset over lack of consultation and effect on property values
By Melissa Kok & Ang Yiying
Rental flats are slated to be built at Pasir Ris Drive 6 (above) on a field between Blocks 475 and 476. Mr Dennis Kennedy, a 55-year-old resident of Block 473, which overlooks the field, said he will miss the view and breeze if the flats go up. -- ST PHOTO: ONG WEE JIN
IN THE space of a week, residents in two housing estates - dismayed to learn that new rental blocks were being built near their homes - have gone up against the Housing Board.
They have met Members of Parliament and HDB officials over the issue.
Some of the more than 20 residents who spoke to The Straits Times were concerned that the rental flats would lower the quality of the neighbourhood and the value of their homes. Others were vocal about not having been consulted.
The residents in the vicinity of Block 885 in Tampines Street 83 form one group, while those around Blocks 475 and 476 in Pasir Ris Drive 6 form the other.
The Tampines residents found out about the HDB's plan to build a 14-storey block of rental flats last month. In Pasir Ris, a notice went up about 10 days ago in the lift lobbies of the blocks next to the earmarked plot, informing residents that work would start this month.
Pasir Ris residents said that with the rental block so near theirs, their new neighbours would be able to look into their living rooms and bedrooms.
Asked about this, the HDB replied that it would follow prevailing building guidelines on the amount of space between new and existing housing blocks.
Over in Tampines, Ms Agatha Tee, 50, said she was concerned that the new block would rob her home of a view and the breeze.
Pasir Ris residents sounded a concern over safety. Some said they feared the flats would house foreign workers or be sublet illegally.
A 50-year-old financial consultant who identified herself as Mrs Choo said: 'Smokers and drinkers may gather at the void deck. Many families here have young children and teenagers. We don't want them led astray.'
The HDB, responding to questions from The Straits Times, said it was building 8,000 rental flats for the poor and needy, to be spread across the island 'to achieve a balanced social mix'.
It added that the two sites had been zoned as residential sites and 'would not have remained as vacant land'.
It also disclosed that new rental flats are going up in Choa Chu Kang, Woodlands and Punggol, and that rental blocks in Sembawang and Yishun had blended well with existing blocks and had not 'created disamenities' for residents there.
The island has 42,000 rental flats.
The Tampines and Pasir Ris residents, upset at not being told earlier about the building plans, said they would have suggested alternative sites for the rental flats. Tampines residents said they would have suggested that the rental block stand eight storeys high instead of 14.
More than 70 Tampines residents met HDB representatives and their MP Sin Boon Ann last Saturday over the matter.
Mr Bernard Fernando, 61, said: 'What we wanted was to be included in the consultation. Mr Sin should have had the decency to consult his constituents, but he conveniently bypassed us.'
Asked to comment on residents' charge that they had not been consulted, Mr Sin replied that this was HDB's project, some details of which were confidential. He said that consulting the residents about the rental flats would have also led to the premature release of price-sensitive information affecting people's decision to buy or sell flats in the area.
Emotions ran no less high when Pasir Ris residents met their MP and HDB representatives last Thursday. Asked to comment on residents' gripes, the HDB responded: 'HDB as well as the local advisers have been in touch with the residents on their feedback and concerns.'
When contacted, National University of Singapore sociologist Paulin Straughan said: 'This is a particularly tough issue because it has to do with housing, and we can understand that housing concerns, or anything concerning neighbourhoods, draw a lot of sentiment...most Singaporeans have put their life savings into home ownership, and they worry how their investment is affected.'
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