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Did HDB overlook these concerns in planning the HDB layout?
The location of a rubbish chute has sent a small group of prospective Build-to-Order (BTO) homeowners anxiously rummaging for answers.
Proposed floorplans on HDB's promotional website had displayed two versions with separate rubbish chute placements, leading to buyer anxieties about having possibly relied on obsolete marketing materials to select units at block 655C of Waterway Sunrise I - a Punggol Town Housing & Development (HDB) project.
While HDB has verified that the common refuse chute will be situated close to unit 764's main door, the alternate version had shown the same rubbish chute adjacent to unit 762's doorway.
HDB often uploads several proposed floorplans before readying a single version for buyer consideration. However, a lone floorplan exhibited on HDB's unit distribution plan webpage had been overlooked, and was not updated in time for the unit selection phase. Regardless, all HDB proposals are published with a disclaimer that plans are subject to approval.
By the time the mistake was called out, some BTO buyers had already committed to specific units. A discussion among at least four affected parties, each holding units 762 and 764 across various levels, was initiated within a closed Facebook group before HDB was consulted on the alleged slip.
There were concerns that the proximity of the common refuse chute might pose privacy issues - with an unaffected prospective estate resident commenting that the rubbish area might even be unsanitary.
"What is going to happen to those who chose the 764 stack - because marketing materials showed that the common refuse area for Block 655C was abutting unit 762 and not unit 764?" said Mitchell Li, a buyer who first spotted the oversight.
Another unit 764 buyer who has declined to be named says he chose his unit partly to avoid unpleasant odours and noise from the common rubbish area - which he explains would be "deciding factors" for his unit's future resaleability.
On the flip side, HDB's confirmation might have assuaged the initial anxieties of some owners.
Five unit 762 owners with some degree of involvement in the Facebook group have since not responded, or declined to comment.
In response to queries from The Business Times, HDB says the centralised rubbish chute (CRC) was shown abutting unit 762 in a sales brochure at launch, but "subsequently shifted to abut unit 764, to comply with statutory requirements on fire safety". An updated sales brochure reflecting the "revised location of the CRC, was given to potential applicants during the flat selection exercise in Feb 2017, before they selected their flats".
HDB did not say whether parties claiming to have been misinformed will be compensated.
For a majority of young Singaporean couples, the BTO system provides an affordable first step into home ownership. Enterprising BTO acquirers can then look forward to resell relatively affordable acquisitions at open market premiums.
At the prime end of the resale spectrum, the debut of Pinnacle@Duxton 2004 BTO drew immense interest with units from 1,130 square feet to 1,162 sq ft priced between S$343,100 and S$451,500. According to HDB's website, comparable five-room units in the project have been re-sold at prices ranging from S$930,000 to a high of S$1.1 million, since June 2016.
But losses are also possible, according to Sharlyn Neo, senior group director, Dennis Wee Group, who has seen people making losses after the Minimum Occupation Period (MOP), as certain estates are highly susceptible to drastic price swings in tandem with prevailing market conditions.
The prospect of earning a return over the initial investment has prompted some prospective homeowners to favour certain units - based on a loose appraisal of considerations that are perceived to affect a flat unit's open market desirability.
Criteria for review range from a unit's directional bearing, level, schools, general floorplan, surrounding environment, neighbourhood amenities, transportation and anticipated developments within the vicinity.
Such factors are merely among many others believed to affect resaleabilty and value - for better or worse.
"After location, the rubbish chute can come into play," said Ms Neo "I know of a second floor unit that has been unsellable because it is too close to the ground level rubbish collection area. On higher floors, most customers can accept it - some even appreciate the convenience.
"All price factors remaining equal, the rubbish chute will definitely affect resaleability if it is visible from inside the home, and although new HDB rubbish chutes are often discretely located, there will always be a minority that avoid such units."
According to Ong Kah Seng, director, R'ST Research, the surge of information on the Internet has fashioned an increasingly "discerning" property buyer. Even so, BTO applicants are still traditionally "price takers", as compared to the average resale market shopper, who tends to be "more savvy and price sensitive".
"While some BTO applicants may be concerned about longer-term prospects, most applicants understand that flats are subsidised, and that most units should deliver capital gains upon resale after the five-year MOP - especially after seven to eight years when prices begin to reflect further township developments, particularly in non-mature estates," he said.
First published in The Business Times