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Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) flats are a type of housing unique to Singapore. They were first built in 1974 to cater to a sandwiched class of Singaporeans who can afford something better than the typical public housing, or HDB flats, but yet still find private housing unaffordable. Moreover, in the 1970s there were fewer private housing in the country.
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History
The Singapore Government set up the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) Private Limited to develop HUDC flats. These flats stood out for their roomy interiors. The earliest ones had units which ranged between 139 sq m to 158 sq m. Besides their spaciousness, HUDC projects also boasted better amenities, compared to HDB flats, like covered car parks and landscaped grounds.
HUDC flats were developed over four phases from 1974 to 1987. Phase I and II ran from 1974 to the early 1980s and were overseen by the Housing and Urban Development Company (HUDC) Private Limited; while Phase III and IV lasted from 1982 to 1987 when HDB took charge of the building of new HUDC (such as Tampines Court and Ivory Heights).
On the back of waning popularity, the building of new HUDC ceased in 1984. When the HUDC scheme ended, there were already 18 HUDC projects and 7,731 units altogether, such as Tampines Court and Ivory Heights.
Privatisation
In 1995, the Government announced plans to privatise HUDC as long as 75 per cent of the owners in a project agree to it.