Lift Upgrading Programme

Press release on 7 sept 2001
The new Lift Upgrading Programme was introduced in March 2001 in response to requests from Members of Parliament for more and earlier lift upgrading works to provide greater convenience to HDB residents. To speed up lift upgrading for high-rise HDB blocks, the LUP can be carried out as part of the MUP or the IUP from 2001 onwards. In addition, MND will select a number of precincts each year solely for the purpose of lift upgrading.

The scope of works will include installation of new lifts and lift shafts, upgrading of existing lifts and addition of new lift landings, where technically feasible. With the implementation of the LUP, the limited lift upgrading works that are currently carried out under the IUP will be subsumed under the new programme.

HDB will conduct a special poll for each LUP precinct. All flat owners in an HDB block, except those living on the ground floor and floors that already have lift landings, will have to vote and co-pay for the lift upgrading works. The LUP will proceed only if 75% or more of the households who stand to benefit from the lift upgrading works vote in favour of the LUP. Polling for precincts in the Demonstration Phase will start in the next one to two months.

The cost of the lift upgrading works will be co-shared among the Government, Town Councils and the flat owners. To ensure that the flat owners’ share of the lift upgrading cost is affordable, the Government will subsidise 75% to 90% of the cost of the lift upgrading works. The actual proportion will depend on the flat type and block configuration.

Town Councils will also be allowed to use their sinking funds to co-pay the remaining cost with the flat owners. For lift upgrading for a typical 4-room flat in a standard block, the Government will pay about $10,000, while Town Councils and the owner will each pay about $900.

Flat owners in segmented blocks will have to pay a higher amount because lift upgrading for these blocks will cost considerably more. This is because new lifts and lift shafts have to be added, and the lifts will serve a smaller number of flats. However, the Government will cap the maximum amount that each household has to pay at $3,000.

HDB flat owners need only pay for the lift upgrading cost after the works are completed. On average, this will be about 2 years from the date of announcement. Flat owners can pay for their share of the lift upgrading costs either in one lump sum or by monthly instalments over a 5 or 10-year period, using their CPF savings or cash. HDB will also extend the existing assistance measures under the MUP to flat owners who have difficulties paying for the LUP.




Mah Bow Tan, Minister of MND:-
Lift upgrading in HDB estates, Members would have heard the Prime Minister announce that MND will be targeting to complete the Lift Upgrading Programme in 10 years for all eligible blocks. Members have also asked whether we can speed up the programme. Let me now give some details about how we intend to implement the LUP in 10 years, as well as to address some of the Members' concerns and suggestions.

We introduced LUP in 2001, and that was to meet the needs of our ageing population by providing lifts on every floor, and the programme has been very, very popular with residents. I say that it is going to be even more in demand as our population ages.

What is the status so far? We have selected about 600 blocks for LUP. Some of the works have been completed, while others are in various stages of completion. Another 650 blocks have had their lifts upgraded under another programme, which is the Main Upgrading Programme (MUP) which incorporates lift upgrading. Blocks that are built after 1990 already have direct lift access. So, if we do our mathematics, it gives us about 3,000 high-rise and 800 low-rise HDB blocks which are still waiting for their lifts to be upgraded.

To provide lifts on every floor, we will have to add new lift cars, landings, lift shafts, depending on the different block configurations. This is a very major and
costly exercise.

The cost per unit ranges from as low as $1,500 to as high as $80,000 or $90,000 per unit. To provide for lifts for all the remaining blocks, it is going to cost the Government something like $5 billion. To put this figure in perspective, this is more than four times what the whole Ministry's public housing budget is for the financial year of 2005, if Parliament approves the budget for MND.

That is $5 billion.

So, when Prof. Ivan Png asked what if we were to accelerate the programme and complete it within five years, what is going to be the extra cost, the answer is
really that it is not likely to be less than that. In fact, it may even be more. At
the moment, we have low construction cost, but I do not think that this is going
to be the case for ever and ever. Costs are likely to rise.

In fact, they have already risen. Material costs have gone up. Labour cost will go up, and construction cost generally will rise over time.
But, more importantly, we have to ask ourselves, if we were to accelerate the programme, whether HDB, the contractors, suppliers, etc, will have the capacity to cope with such an accelerated
programme. We also have to take into account the funds that are available for completing this programme quickly.


Budget FY 2005 – Committee of Supply -- Ministry of National Development Obviously, when you do it in five years, you are going to spend much more per year, and the budget within each year would have to be considered very carefully. So, our assessment is that 10 years is a realistic timeframe. The cost of lift upgrading per unit, as I said earlier, ranges from about $1,500 for a standard block with a standard configuration, ie, common corridors where you just have to punch the lifts through, to something like $80,000 to $90,000 for some of the more complicated segmented blocks where you have to have virtually a lift shaft for every stack of flats. So, to ensure that the largest possible number of residents can benefit from lift upgrading, we will only select blocks for lift upgrading if the cost per unit does not exceed $30,000. With this cost cap of $30,000, 95% of the blocks will be be ligible for LUP."

Note: this is the actual picture we are seeing over the next 10 years. hopefully our block will have Lift upgrading as most of our neighbours are getting old.