SINGAPORE: For fans of open-concept living spaces, National Development Minister Desmond Lee announced on Monday (May 27) that a new housing project would feature this design.
A trial run for the “white flats” at the Build-To-Order (BTO) project in Kallang-Whampoa will be launched in October, Mr Lee said in a speech at the Pre-University Seminar at Ho Bee Auditorium at the National University of Singapore.
What sets “white flats” apart is that they will have contiguous living and bedroom space that is not separated by walls. The BTO will have 310 three-room and four-room units, and would-be homebuyers can choose to have a “white flat.”
This new flat type allows buyers to design their flats according to their needs. “One flat, but many design possibilities!” HDB said in a Facebook post on Monday afternoon.
“We’re piloting ‘White Flats’, which will come with an open living and bedroom space.
Buyers who opt for these flats can get creative with their home layouts and enjoy more flexibility in designing their dream home to meet their needs over different life stages.
The pilot ‘White Flats’ project will be launched in Kallang/ Whampoa town at the Oct 2024 BTO exercise – stay tuned!” HDB added.
HDB also said that the design will appeal to young home buyers who prefer open-concept homes or who like to use furnishing ideas to get creative with their own spaces.
The pilot also allows homeowners to install walls later on “to meet their needs at different life stages.”
Mr Lee said, “At a later life stage, when the kids become older, the couple can then choose to reconfigure the flat based on their new needs, such as creating bedrooms or redesigning their living spaces.”
Home buyers at the Kallang-Whampoa project who do not choose the “white flat” option will receive the standard layout with walls.
As for pricing, HDB says that the absence of inner walls as partitions would be factored into the units’ pricing. However, the prices of these flats are still being finalized.
Younger Singaporeans gave the government feedback when the Forward Singapore exercise was carried out, saying that they’d like to have more flexibility in configuring the spaces in their homes according to their needs.
“We took this idea back and worked with our architects and engineers to see what we could do,” the Minister said. /TISG
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