Letter to Mah Bow Tan on the conversion of two blocks of flats in Toa Payoh into worker dormitories
December 21st, 2009 | 
Author: Mr Mah Bow Tan
Minister for National Development
I refer to the Straits Times article “Two Toa Payoh blocks converted to dorms” on December 19, 2009. It stated that 2 HDB blocks were being used as dormitories for employees of Resorts World Sentosa (RWS).
I would like the following queries answered:
1. Under which HDB scheme were the 2 blocks of flats rented out to RWS?
2. HDB rents out flats to the needy Singapore Citizens under the Public Rental Scheme (PRS). HDB had tightened the criteria for eligibility for the PRS citing “strong demand for rental flats” in a press release in Feb 2009. Why are these two blocks of flats not rented out to the needy Singapore Citizens? Does the welfare of foreigners have a higher priority than providing housing for needy Singapore Citizens?
3. The ST article states that “each flat houses four to six people who each pay between $140 and $260″. This amounts to a rental ranging from $560-1560 per flat per month, which is generally below the median subletting rents for 2-room and 3-room flats in Toa Payoh in 3Q 2009. Why are these flats rented out to RWS at such a cheap rate? Was the intention to rent out the 2 blocks of flat made public to attract the highest bidding tenants? If not, why?
4. The HDB website states: “The Ethnic Integration Policy (EIP) is aimed to promote racial integration and harmony and to prevent the formation of racial enclaves, by ensuring a balanced ethnic mix among the various ethnic communities living in public housing estates. EIP is applicable to the purchase of new flats, resale flats, SERS ( Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme) replacement flats and DBSS (Design, Build & Sell Scheme) flats as well as the allocation of rental flats in all HDB estates.”
What are the ethnic ratios of the occupants in the 2 blocks of flats rented out the RWS? In renting out 2 entire blocks of flats to a single tenant (RWS) to house foreigners, HDB could have violated the Ethnic Integration Policy. Why is EIP not applied in this case? What is the rationale for waiving the EIP quota for foreigners when all other Singaporean HDB flat dwellers are subject to EIP limits?
Regards,
Aurora Long
Posted in Letters
IT would be funny if the residents of this rooms rented out a small place to any vice trade woman.
Would MBT chase these workers out?
Where to find their replacement then?
LHL mentioned that even poor families have aircon in their small hdb flats and he wanted people to save electricity.
I wonder if he realise the irony that even FT who rent the Toa Payoh place has air con.
should he expect locals to have less?
I can’t even afford to live in the prime estate of Toa Payoh and these foreigners can get to live in it… wondering what’s the point of being a citizen then? Why not house them in Lim Chu Kang or other outskirts of Singapore?
I agree with meninblue. This is really puzzling. On 1 hand, MBT comes out and declare that singaporeans shouldnt expect all the flats to be based in developed towns but on the other hand, such units are used and rented out to IR staffs? That plot of land could easily be used to redevelope new, higher units of flats right?
I do not understand this idiocracy in thinking.
As long as you know what are the priority in Lky team. Then mbt action is already understood. Rws is a cash cow for lky team.
…because our leaders are such excellent private sector materials. They ought to have earned much more money in the private sector, according to the Lees, both father and son. So you can only expect capitalistic workings in the way they run Spore. What else is new.
clear double-standards.
looks like the IR is bring problem before it is being built, i wonder how many more problems will it bring when it is built?
Scandalous!
The millionairre ministers have NO SHAME in making obviously controversial decisions, using public funds and public housing, to provide private housing to private foreigners (so what if they come to sustain the new IR)!
Scandalous! They are just digging a bigger hole in the ground when the next GE comes. But there will still be stupid Singaporeans who will see eye to eye with them, and still vote them in.
For the rest of the people, please wake up! See how your Singapore is being gifted to foreigners, and telling you it is for your own good.
Wah lao eh!
How does the IR benefit the average Singaporean?
This is a good letter. Did they print it in the Straits Times? The newspaper has a duty to print such letters for the sake of public interest.
Today I went ot Jurong Point. Along the way I drove around there to looksee there. I saw many blocks of unoccupied flats at Boon Lay Avenue, at least 6 blocks around there. My friend told me these blocks have been empty for more than a year. Why didn’t HDB let these out to the foreigners? Why the Toa Payoh ones? Evryday I find that our government more and more do things like nobody to answer to, like they suka suka anyhow make decisions without proper care. I am getting more and more disappointed with out so-called “world class” ministers who are actually good for nothing.
Hey! Election is round the corner. Jus want to knw what r the rules governing Poll tickets – in the lat GE, I noticed that there are serial numbers tag with our poll ticket – its uncomfortable to me…..is this legal and Internationally accepted?