4 new neighbourhood centres planned for Punggol, Hougang and Sembawang

SINGAPORE - Four new neighbourhood centres in Punggol, Hougang and Sembawang have been announced by the Housing Board in a move aimed at increasing residential access to facilities for new home owners in the next five years.

The Housing Development Board (HDB) said on Monday that it will increase the supply of HDB shops in these areas by building four new neighbourhood centres to ensure that residents have access to adequate facilities when they move into their new homes.

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Besides shops, the four new neighbourhood centres will also offer residents purpose-built public spaces for daily activities or regular community events. A community plaza will be provided at each neighbourhood centre to increase opportunities for community bonding, HDB added.

In the same announcement, HDB said that it will also disallow the assignment of both commercial and industrial tenanted properties in an effort to weed out rising assignment fees and unhealthy speculation.

Currently, HDB has about 8,000 commercial tenants and 10,700 industrial tenants. Current commercial and industrial tenants in HDB properties are allowed to assign their tenancies. This policy was to facilitate the exit of marginal tenants and to minimise disruption of services.

However, there has been a rise in assignment fees and tendered rents in recent years. This will result in higher operating costs, which may be passed on to residents and consumers, HDB said.

In addition, assignment may also encourage unhealthy speculation.

To preserve the original intent of HDB commercial and industrial properties to operate businesses and serve the needs of HDB residents and consumers, HDB will disallow the assignment of commercial and industrial tenancies with the following measures:

For new tenancies, assignment will not be allowed from October 16. These tenants must return the premises to HDB for re-tender if they wish to exit their businesses.
For existing tenancies, a 3-year window period will be given to help existing tenants make business adjustments. From now till October 15, 2016, existing tenants can continue to assign their shops or industrial premises. However, their assignees can no longer further assign the premises as they are considered new tenants.

HDB will continue to allow shop tenants to sublet up to 50 per cent of their shop space to help shop tenants who wish to scale down their business operations. However, only one sub-tenant is allowed.

HDB tenants can call 1800-866-3073 (Commercial properties) or 1800-866-3077 (Industrial Properties) for further enquiries on the new measure.

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Property Launches & Investments

4 new neighbourhood centres planned for Punggol, Hougang and Sembawang

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