SINGAPORE — As black and white bungalows are difficult to lease out despite being part of Singapore’s heritage, the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has been studying ways to better manage them, said Second Minister for Law Edwin Tong on Monday (July 7).
Mr Tong, was delivering a ministerial statement on the rental of state properties, after several Members of Parliament filed questions following public concerns about the rental of 26 and 31 Ridout Road to Cabinet ministers K Shanmugam and Vivian Balakrishnan.
For one, they may lack modern amenities like air-condition, water heaters and cooking hobs, and retrofitting these amenities are subjected to conservation requirements, he said. The issue arose after opposition Reform Party's chief Kenneth Jeyaretnam published a series of articles that called into question SLA's processes of leasing out the black and white bungalows and questioning whether the two ministers had received preferential treatment over their tenancies. Several MPs also filed similar questions.
“When property market conditions are poor, however, and supply exceeds demand, or if occupancy in certain estates is low, SLA and its managing agents would avoid listing all vacant properties online.” Under an open bidding allocation approach, a property is listed on SPIO for at least 14 days — known as a notice period where open houses for the property are organised — before a five-day bidding window.
“An example is estates where many units have become available together, such that there is bidding fatigue from the earlier batches of units that were released.”In response to a question about why the there is only a six-month period for the publication of these information, Mr Tong said: “After six months, valuations would be outdated as the market might have shifted, and the information is less market relevant.
“As CPIB has established, the Valuer did not even know that Minister Shanmugam and SLA had settled on a rent of S$26,500,” said Mr Tong. However, works were also undertaken by Mr Shanmugam and Dr Balakrishnan. Mr Shanmugam, for instance, spent in excess of S$400,000 on improvement works including a new air-conditioning system, a new carpark shelter and a new swimming pool.
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