SINGAPORE - The best part about Mr Wong Khai Beng's new Buangkok Crescent Housing Board flat is that he gets to share a room with his wife again.
For almost two decades, the mechanical parts salesman, 55, shared a room in his old Kovan four-room flat - which has three bedrooms - with his son, 22. His wife, also 55, shared one with their daughter, 19, while his parents, 83 and 77, took up another.
But last week, Mr Wong's family moved into a three-generation (3Gen) flat, where the married couples, as well as son and daughter, each get a room.
Each 115 sq m 3Gen flat comes with four bedrooms and three bathrooms, two of which are attached to the bedrooms, to provide extra comfort and privacy for its occupants.
"We can still take care of my parents, the kids get their own space, and I get to be with my wife," he laughed.
Such 3Gen flats, rolled out in 2013 for multi-generation families to live under one roof, have been popular, with eight in 10 such units booked, HDB said in a statement on Wednesday (Feb 14).
Close to 1,500 of these flats across 24 projects have been put up for sale as at the end of last year, about 400 more than at the end of 2016. They are still a fraction of some one million HDB flats in total.
Among the 1,100 flats that have been booked so far, 44 per cent were by first-timers while the rest were by second-timers. They have been popular at four projects, where all 252 units across Saraca Breeze @ Yishun , Punggol BayView, Tampines GreenRidge and Tampines GreenVerge - launched between 2013 and 2016 - had a take-up rate of 100 per cent.
To be eligible for 3Gen flats, applicants must form a multi-generation family comprising at least a married or courting couple, and the parents of either spouse.
Resale conditions are stricter: These flats must be sold to other eligible multi-generation families.
The next batch of 3Gen flats will be offered in Yishun in the upcoming Build-to-Order sales exercise in May.
