HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD FLATS

Mr Steve Chia Kiah Hong asked the Minister for National Development if there are plans to ease restrictions on the use of Housing and Development Board flats for other quiet, desk-bound businesses, other than the current technopreneur scheme.

Mr Mah Bow Tan: Under the Technopreneur Home Office (THO) Scheme, aspiring technopreneurs are allowed to use their HDB flats as their registered business address, to conduct infocommunication technology-related work. To date, 385 applications have been approved under the THO Scheme, since its inception in July 1999.

HDB also allows other small-scale businesses to be conducted from HDB flats, so long as they do not cause inconvenience to neighbours. For instance, HDB residents may use their flat to conduct tuition classes or music lessons to small groups of students.

Even as HDB eases the restrictions on the use of HDB flats, it will ensure that it protects the residential nature of our HDB estates. HDB residents should not be inadvertently inconvenienced by noise, excessive human traffic or loss of privacy, as a result of businesses conducted by their neighbours from their HDB flats.