Review of Selected HDB Flats for Lift Upgrading Programme

Mr Zaqy Mohamad asked the Minister for National Development (a) whether HDB will review the Lift Upgrading Programme for units that do not have lifts serving them, particularly for (i) those that are technically feasible but are not eligible due to the funding cap (ii) flats approaching 28 years and existing lifts need to be replaced; (b) how many and what proportion of the total ineligible households are these categories; and (c) how many affected households has the HDB helped to move out of their homes owing to mobility issues in the past five years and what proportion of affected households does this represent.

The Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) was launched in 2001 to provide direct lift access to flats and enhance convenience for residents, especially the elderly and the less mobile. At the start of the programme, there were more than 5,300 HDB blocks without 100% lift access. Among them, more than 1,000 blocks were initially found to be unfeasible for LUP due to prohibitive cost or technical constraints.

Over the years, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) has adopted innovative technical solutions, such as lifts that do not have a machine room at the top of the shafts, that is, machine room-less lifts, and the use of smaller "home lifts" to help such blocks to have direct lift access. Through these efforts, the vast majority of the 5,300 blocks are now able to benefit from LUP. There remain only about 150 blocks where it is still not possible to implement LUP due to prohibitive cost, or existing technical or site constraints. On a flat basis, less than 1% of our sold flats do not have direct lift access.

Residents who are in urgent need of direct lift access due to medical conditions or disability may approach HDB for housing and financing assistance. They have to submit relevant documents, such as the doctor's certification of their medical condition. Over the past five years, HDB has received 23 such appeals, and has acceded to 22% of them. HDB will continue to assess such requests on a case-by-case basis and see how best to render help.

The Member also asked whether blocks with lifts approaching 28 years of age could be granted LUP. I would like to clarify that LUP is not intended to assist Town Councils with their statutory duty to carry out renewal or replacement of common property, such as lifts. We have already introduced initiatives, such as the Lift Replacement Fund and Lift Maintenance Grants, for this purpose.