Varying consent thresholds, lower flat age eligibility: What VERS for HDB towns could look like

Across the world, particularly in Asia’s high-density cities, one growing challenge looms. The housing stock is getting old and needs to be renovated or upgraded. But it is not easy to secure a broad collective agreement from residents to go ahead with this renewal.

The

recent episode in Tiong Bahru

, where two walk-up blocks built in 1949 narrowly failed to meet the 75 per cent threshold required for Singapore’s Home Improvement Programme (HIP), illustrates this problem in a specific context. Despite strong majority support, the process was held back by a handful of opposing and non-voting households. The problem is that individual incentives often diverge from collective needs.