Mr Tan Meng Dui
Chief Executive Officer
HDB continued to deliver on the public housing programme amidst a turbulent year, and design endearing homes that meet Singaporeans’ life cycle needs. This commitment is articulated in our new ‘Designing for Life’ roadmap, which aims to further enrich the lives of our residents over the next decade, especially in the areas of health and wellness.
Meeting Singaporeans’ Housing Needs
This Financial Year (FY), we continued providing quality, affordable and inclusive housing options to meet the diverse needs of Singaporeans across different life cycles. We launched about 17,400 Build-to-Order (BTO) flats and 5,200 Sale of Balance flats in both mature and non-mature estates, and made about 800 flats available through the open booking of flats. Under the BTO programme this FY, we completed more than 7,100 flats and issued over 6,200 keys to home owners. We also continued to rejuvenate and renew existing flats, and upgraded about 18,600 flats under our Home Improvement Programme (HIP).
We also made it more convenient for flat buyers and sellers to gather information on their housing and financing options with the launch of the HDB Flat Portal in January 2021, therefore simplifying the process of buying and selling HDB flats.
To ensure that housing in prime locations do not become gentrified over time, HDB and the Ministry of National Development have been engaging the public and various stakeholders to jointly create a new public housing model in prime areas. This is to ensure that future public housing remains affordable and inclusive to Singaporeans from all walks of life, even as Singapore recycles land in prime areas and rejuvenates our estates in the years ahead.
Smart and Sustainable HDB Living
Building quality homes for Singaporeans is an ongoing endeavour for HDB, and we continuously seek out innovative and smart solutions that can bring about a more liveable, sustainable and convenient living environment for our residents. To help HDB build more efficiently and safely, we will also be collaborating with the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) to explore greater use of automation and robotics for our projects.
This FY saw the completion of HDB’s first smart and sustainable district in Punggol Northshore, our testbed for smart technologies in homes and estates. Homes in Northshore Residences I and II are now equipped with smart distribution boards for residents to better manage energy consumption within their homes and facilitate adoption of smart home solutions. Residents and visitors have also been enjoying the conveniences of Parking@HDB, a new-generation parking system with smart features such as barrier-free car park entrances and exits.
Engagement and Co-Creation
In the past year, much of our world has shifted online, including our social interactions. When safe management measures meant that co-creation opportunities could not be held physically, we quickly moved into the digital sphere. For example, MyNiceHome roadshows were transformed to a digital format, so that new home owners-to-be could still learn more about their future homes and pick up tips on HDB living. We also pressed on with efforts to partner residents to play an active role in shaping their community and living environment through platforms that facilitate ground-up initiatives such as the Lively Places programme.
HDB engaged about 300 residents virtually from Bukit Merah, Queenstown, Choa Chu Kang and Ang Mo Kio – the fourth batch of towns announced under the Remaking Our Heartland programme – and invited them to share their aspirations for the towns and co-conceptualise areas for rejuvenation. We also engaged Non-Government and other interest groups on housing developments with potential greenery and heritage concerns, to ensure that the design and development of housing projects are done sensitively and minimise implications to our natural and built environment. In addition, we organised 2 Emerging Stronger Conversations, where Singaporeans discussed issues such as how HDB could create a more holistic quality living environment in a post-COVID Singapore.
A Resilient HDB
In the past year, we have made full use of the digital-first capabilities that HDB has built up over the years and adapted our processes quickly to ensure seamless service delivery to our customers. As a result, despite the severe disruptions caused by the pandemic, we achieved an improved Net Promoter Score of 9.5 in the latest Customer Experience Survey, a jump from 1.8 in the previous survey.
HDB’s agility and resilience were also put to the test in our fight against COVID-19, and have held up well. At the peak of the pandemic, we set up quarantine centres and temporary accommodation to re-house healthy migrant workers in record time. Many colleagues also answered the call of duty, and stepped up to walk the ground as Safe Distancing Ambassadors and Enforcement Officers. Other colleagues adapted quickly and continued to deliver essential HDB services during the 2-month Circuit Breaker in 2020, minimising inconvenience to our customers and ensuring HDB’s business continuity.
Towards the New Normal
HDB celebrated its 60th Anniversary last year. Anyone who goes around this tiny island that we call home, will be able to see the history, development, and success of public housing playing out before their eyes. Despite the turbulence of this past year, HDB capped 2020 by clinching the Transformative Agency of the Year award. This significant achievement is the result of the hard work of everyone in HDB, including the pioneers and all those who have come before us in HDB. In this regard, I would like to thank Dr Cheong Koon Hean, former CEO of HDB, for her strong leadership in the past 10 years, leaving behind an organisation in shipshape and well poised for the next phase of its development.
Going forward, the immediate challenge is to recover from and achieve a smooth landing for the current delays in our BTO programme. We also need to confront the challenges of tighter land supply and meeting the rising housing aspirations of Singaporeans, while responding to the evolving conversations on balancing development and conservation. Against this backdrop, HDB seeks to emerge stronger from the experience of the past year and to stay the course of our transformation, to deliver endearing homes that all are proud of.