VERS was first announced in 2018 by then-Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. More details have been keenly awaited amid concerns about the impact of lease expiry on resale prices of older HDB flats.
Mr Chee’s latest comments mark the government’s most significant update on VERS since.
In 2018, Mr Lee said VERS would allow older HDB towns to be redeveloped over 20 to 30 years, rather than within four to five years.
This week, Mr Chee reiterated the need to progressively stage redevelopment over two to three decades.
He noted that several older estates were rapidly built up in the 1970s and 1980s to meet urgent housing demand then.
“If we leave all the leases to naturally run down … we will need to relocate a large number of residents and build many new homes within a short time in the 2070s and 2080s,” he said, adding that this would be “very disruptive”.
Still, Mr Chee said there was no need to scale up VERS until “sometime in the late 2030s” when older flats reach their 70-year mark.
Given how VERS is a “complex policy and a long-term undertaking”, government agencies have already started work to flesh out a framework.
When ready, the Ministry of National Development and the Housing and Development Board will engage Singaporeans to take in further views and feedback.
“We will continually review our processes as we go along … Our plan is to progressively offer VERS to selected estates in different parts of Singapore,” said Mr Chee.
The government is also looking at how to support those who may not want to go through VERS.
These residents will get to continue staying in their flats until the leases run out, and the government will then help in other ways such as through the Silver Upgrading Programme and HIP II, the minister said.
HIP II is an extension of the current programme, which gives all HDB flats a second round of upgrading when they reach the 60 to 70-year mark.
Asked if it would be an “either-or situation” for residents to choose between VERS and HIP II, Mr Chee said that while it was too early to go into details of VERS, the two policies would not be mutually exclusive.
“If you want to spread out the projects for VERS over a 20 to 30-year period, some of them will have to take place at an earlier stage – that means at around the 70-year mark. Some maybe even slightly earlier; but some may actually take place a bit later,” he said.
“Because of that, we may still need to do HIP II at around the 60-year mark to ensure that the older flats can remain livable for all residents.”
