{"id":7742,"date":"2016-11-14T02:27:52","date_gmt":"2016-11-13T18:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/blog\/singapore\/?p=7742"},"modified":"2022-07-01T04:04:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T20:04:38","slug":"dbss-hudc-success-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.99.co\/singapore\/insider\/dbss-hudc-success-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"Why was DBSS a failure, while HUDC flats were a success?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Pasir
Pasir Ris One was the last DBSS project to be built<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Design, Build, and Sell Scheme (DBSS) has been suspended, but not before leaving a sour taste in the mouths of many Singaporeans. The expensive, privately developed flats have fallen \u00a0short of previous “sandwich” class flats, such as Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) flats. But why don’t they make them like they used to?<\/span><\/p>\n

The success of older sandwich class flats\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

When HUDC flats were launched, there was no slew of complaints. It was different from the reception of DBSS flats like <\/span>Pasir Ris One<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>Trivelis<\/span><\/a>, in which residents seemed one match stick short of setting the developers on fire. <\/span><\/p>\n

And looking at their prices now, the HUDC flats have done well. With regard to Shunfu Villa, which recently went en-bloc, there were two HUDC maisonettes that were sold for around $1.22 and $1.28 million respectively in 2011 and 2012. <\/span><\/p>\n

These old sandwich class flats clearly had something DBSS flats don’t. The DBSS projects focused on design and upmarket finishings, for which buyers were charged a premium. Putting aside the issue of defects, we’re going to go ahead and say that – even without the defects – DBSS would never have equalled the success of its predecessors.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reasons are simple:<\/span> Old sandwich class flats were more expensive, but people paid for what they wanted most. The new DBSS units, while also expensive, delivered mostly irrelevant trappings in exchange for its premiums. Here’s what DBSS should have learned from its earlier counterparts:<\/span><\/p>\n