UNOCCUPIED TWO-ROOM FLATS (Particulars)

Mr Ho See Beng asked the Minister for National Development and Communications if he will give the figures of unoccupied two-room flats in all the Housing and Development Board housing estates: and how long such flats have been left vacant and the reason for not letting them out to applicants who are urgently in need of larger accommodation due to congestion.

Dr Tan Eng Liang (for the Minister for National Development and Communications): Mr Speaker, Sir, there are altogether 447 units of vacant two-room flats in HDB housing estates as at June 1977. These units have been offered to resettlement families who are given priority in their applications for flats. Those units not taken up by the resettlement families will then be allocated to the one-room tenants who have applied for transfer and the public applicants on our waiting list.

There are 20 to 30 two-room units which have been vacant for two to three months as at June 1977. These are usually the units which have been rejected by three or four applicants in succession.