Heart of the Matter Podcast: Tengah woes - Legitimate concerns or normal teething problems?
Common complaints included lack of amenities or transport options and problems with the central cooling system.
_1.jpg?itok=ej8yMFTJ "Heart of the Matter Podcast: Tengah woes - Legitimate concerns or normal teething problems?")
Some of the first batch of residents who moved into Singapore's newest HDB town have complained of lack of shops, poor internet connection and condensation issues with the centralised cooling system - the first of its kind in a residential estate.
Are teething problems to be expected when building a new town or have buyers' expectations changed? Woo Jun Jie from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, and Nicholas Mak, a real estate analyst, discuss with Steven Chia.
Woo Jun Jie:
Punggol had issues with transport connectivity and amenities ... teething problems are quite common (but in Tengah), it was exacerbated by the size of the estate and secondly, there was COVID, there were all these delays.
Nicholas Mak:
We are a nation of instant trees, one moment the road is bare, a week later, you've got adult trees. So Singaporeans begin to expect (more). Homeowners also put in their hard earned money to buy the biggest assets of their life.
Jump to these key moments:
- 1:30 What goes into the planning of a new town
- 4:30 The challenge of a multi-agency effort
- 7:29 Issues with the centralised cooling system
- 11:40 Will waiving costs make a difference?
- 14:20 Lessons from Tengah for other new estates
Source: CNA/cr
