HDB pilots new open concept ‘white flats’ in October BTO exercise
In contrast to occurring apartments, these “white flats” will have contiguous living and bed rooms space without columns or parting wall surfaces. The very first series of such white flats are going to be presented at the Kallang-Whampoa BTO project, with 310 three- and four-room units.
“It lets the format of the HDB flat to be customised and re-configured as family may need adjustment,” comments Eugene Lim, primary executive officer at ERA Singapore.
“Public housing apartments that provide the white plan can be a novelty for some prospective buyers”, says Sunlight.
An example is Far East Company’s Inessence brand of ultra-luxury homes, such as Alba, Boulevard Vue and Skyline @ Orchard Blvd in the prime communities of Orchard Road. The “white plan” concept permitted customers to personalise their units.
According to the HDB, the non-provision of internal dividers walls for such white condos will definitely be factored into the pricing. Property buyers may decide into the new style when they are welcomed to book their flat.
Christine Sun, primary researcher & strategist at OrangeTee Group, mentions that such “white strategy” approaches that offer property buyers the possibility to customise the style of their units were available just in upscale special homes before.
Despite this, Sun forecasts that any potential price contrast would not be considerable as the construction of non-structural dividers is cheaper.
HDB will pilot a brand-new open idea layout in the October Built-To-Order (BTO) activity, announced Desmond Lee, Minister of Nationwide Development, at a keynote on May 27.
However, she adds that the brand-new format might have a possible disadvantage when offering the unit in the future as it may appeal to a smaller pool of buyers.
For example, four-room apartments today have three rooms. Young couples without kids yet may not need all three rooms now. A white flat allows them to parting the space with furniture pieces or glass dividers. Later on, when they have kids, the area can be repurposed, and the bedrooms created, adds Lim.
He explains that those who wish to revamp their new flat can even see expense reductions as they won’t need to demolish partitions, unlike those purchasing the conventional HDB apartments.
