Singapore has been tackling the COVID-19 pandemic for more than 2 years now, and we are seeing emerging signs of recovery. Restrictions have eased and people have started to embrace living with the virus.

However, it was just not too long ago that HDB was facing challenges brought about by the pandemic. Amidst the many disruptions and constraints, we firmly kept our building programme a top priority this Financial Year (FY). We adapted and adjusted to dynamic situations with resilience and innovation, as we continued to deliver on our mission of providing affordable, quality, and vibrant homes for Singaporeans.

Keeping Homes Affordable

To keep homes affordable for Singaporeans, the Government implemented a set of measures in December 2021 to cool a buoyant residential market. Specific to public housing, the Loan-to-Value limit for HDB housing loans was reduced from 90% to 85% to encourage greater financial prudence among home buyers.

HDB has also started to ramp up public housing supply for Singaporeans in response to strong demand driven by changing demographics. Besides the trend towards smaller households, we expect more demand in the near term from the echo boomers — those born in the late 1980s and 1990s — as they reach marriageable age. Our new flats will continue to be priced with generous subsidies and made even more affordable with housing grants.

In addition to increasing the supply of new flats, we have made it our priority to ensure that Build-To-Order (BTO) projects are delivered with minimal delays. Since the start of the pandemic, we have worked closely with our building partners in our ramp up and recovery efforts so that flat buyers can move into their new homes as quickly as possible.

Meeting Housing Needs and Aspirations

Even amidst the pandemic, HDB took the opportunity to reimagine our homes and towns, so that we can continue to meet the evolving housing needs and aspirations of Singaporeans.

Guided by our Designing for Life roadmap, we broke new ground with the ambitious Health District @ Queenstown pilot, our Prime Location Public Housing (PLH) flats in Rochor and Kallang/ Whampoa, and HDB’s first seafront new generation neighbourhood centre in Punggol Northshore.

We also continued to upgrade our existing towns and estates, such as through the town-wide Remaking Our Heartland rejuvenation programme, and the sustainability-focused HDB Green Towns Programme. Through these upgrading efforts, our residents can enjoy a high quality of life, regardless of where they live.

To meet the strong housing demand in mature estates, including from young families who want to live near their parents in the area for better mutual care and support, HDB announced plans in this FY for new housing areas in Ulu Pandan, Mount Pleasant, and Bukit Merah.

Meaningful Engagement and Co-creation

As part of our efforts in partnering Singaporeans through meaningful engagement and co-creation, we worked through and refined the development plans for the new housing areas in Ulu Pandan and Mount Pleasant after engaging various stakeholders, from nature and heritage groups to members of the public.

Our new PLH model was also developed after hearing views from more than 7,500 Singaporeans, including experts, industry players, and members of the public.

We will harness these diverse views and voices as a strength, to help us plan and design the best possible homes and living environment for our residents. Partnering our stakeholders through meaningful engagement and co-creation will continue to be a key priority for HDB in the way we shape our homes.

As we continue on this trajectory, there will be policies and programmes which will become increasingly challenging to plan for, and even harder to implement and communicate to our residents, as we have seen from the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme exercise in Ang Mo Kio in April 2022. We should remain agile and responsive, be prepared to tweak policies timely, and think out of the box for solutions — even as we continue to strengthen our engagement with residents and other stakeholders — so that we can do better going forward.

Emerging Stronger

The past two years since the start of the pandemic has been one of the most difficult periods in HDB’s history. I thank our home buyers for their patience and understanding, and would like to reassure them that HDB is working hard to minimise any further delays in the construction of their flats. We remain deeply committed to delivering on our promise of providing affordable, quality, and well-designed homes.

My appreciation goes out to HDB’s building partners for your dedication and commitment as we work together to ride out these challenging times.

I would also like to thank the HDB Board Members and Management for their leadership. My deepest gratitude as well to all our staff, for staying the course in our journey together. Our people are what keeps HDB strong and resilient, and we have come a long way since the early days of COVID-19. As the situation stabilises, we have much to learn and build on from our collective experience.

Together, we will emerge stronger from the pandemic.