VACANT COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS AND PRIVATE APARTMENTS (Particulars)

Mr Yeo Choo Kok asked the Minister for National Development (a) how many hotel rooms and offices in commercial buildings have remained vacant or unoccupied since completion in the last 12 months; (b) how many private apartments and houses have remained vacant or unoccupied since completion in the last 12 months; (c) whether his Ministry will buy over some of these hotels or commercial buildings and convert them to public use such as government offices and welfare and recreation centres; and (d) whether the Housing and Development Board will purchase some of these vacant private apartments and houses and sell them to interested buyers under the public housing scheme.

The Minister for National Development (Mr Teh Cheang Wan): Mr Speaker, Sir, 235,599 sq metres of offices and 5,284 residential housing units were completed between October 1983 and September 1984. Of the completed office areas and housing units, 96,972 sq metres or 41.2% of the offices and 2,429 units or 46.0% of the housing units were vacant at the end of September 1984. My Ministry does not monitor the occupancy rates of hotel rooms. That is the responsibility of the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board. The Board has estimated that the occupancy rate of 2,385 additional new hotel rooms in 1984 averaged 65.8% versus a national average of 75.5% for 16,440 rooms.

Neither the Ministry nor the Housing and Development Board has plans to purchase any of the vacant office space, hotel rooms or housing units. Individual government ministries decide how and where their activities are to be carried out. If there is a need for them to purchase some of the vacant office space or hotel rooms, they can take up the matter directly with the Ministry of Finance.

Private residential properties cater to the needs of people who do not qualify for public housing units built by the Housing and Development Board. It is not within the Board's objective to buy over such units for resale to interested buyers. It is also not necessary to do so. Interested buyers can negotiate with private developers directly.