HDB Will Reimburse Punggol BTO Buyers After Over 1-Year Delay In Completion
On Saturday (4 Mar), the Housing and Development Board (HDB) announced that they would reimburse those who purchased Build-To-Order (BTO) units in Waterway Sunrise II, Punggol.
The reimbursement comes after a delay in completion from mid-2021 onwards for over a year.
Now completed, the 896 households who booked a unit by October 2021 will be eligible for the reimbursement amount.
HDB to reimburse Punggol BTO buyers as completion was delayed due to contractor’s failure
According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), HDB launched Waterway Sunrise II in 2017, initially aiming for completion by mid-2021, with the Delivery Possession Date (DPD) set between March and June 2022.
Source: Waterway Sunrise II on Google
However, completion was delayed due to the failure of its original contractor, Lian Ho Lee Construction.
Additional manpower shortages and supply disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the construction timeline further.
Several ongoing BTO projects suffered significant delays during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Waterway Sunrise II is one of them. Alongside Anchorvale Village in Sengkang, its total delays have exceeded one year.
896 households eligible for reimbursement
HDB will now compensate those who purchased a unit in Waterway Sunrise II for the delay since the DPD had been crossed, The Straits Times (ST).
896 households who booked a unit by October 2021 will be eligible, HDB added. They will receive the reimbursement within two months of completing the purchase and accepting the settlement agreement.
The agreement will contain the exact reimbursement amount the buyer is eligible for. HDB has calculated this based on the delay period and the selling price of the unit purchased.
Buyers need not submit proof of out-of-pocket qualifying expenses for reimbursement.
HDB said they would pay buyers the “maximum reimbursement sum that they would be eligible for, without them having to submit any claims/proof of the expenses”.
The board confirmed they have already reimbursed those who purchased units in the first four completed blocks.
The estimated reimbursement amount ranges from S$1,000 to S$10,500 for every affected buyer. On average, it would be about S$5,750.
In total, the reimbursement amount for all 896 households is expected to cost around S$5,156,700.
Construction of blocks completed
HDB has completed construction of the seven blocks in Waterway Sunrise II, progressively handing the flats in five to buyers.
Source: Waterway Sunrise II on Google
58% of the 951 buyers have collected the keys to their purchased units since December 2022.
HDB added that final checks on the remaining two blocks are ongoing. Buyers can expect to receive the keys to the units by the end of March.
To keep construction of the Waterway Sunrise II on track during the pandemic, HDB employed Expand Construction, a new contractor. They worked closely with the company to “reduce the extent of project delays by as much as possible”.
HDB also extended “assistance measures” to ensure the safe completion of the project without compromising its quality.
These included securing critical construction materials supply, migrant manpower resources and prioritising manpower allocation to the project to expedite the construction.
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Featured image adapted from Waterway Sunrise II on Google.
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