Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme

The Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme, or SERS for short, is an urban redevelopment strategy employed by the Housing and Development Board in Singapore in maintaining and upgrading public housing flats in older estates in the city-state. Launched in August 1995, it involves a small selection of specific precincts in older estates which undergo demolition and redevelopment, as opposed to upgrading of existing flats via the Main Upgrading and Interim Upgrading Programmes. To date, 56 SERS sites have been announced, of which 34 were completed.

All residents displaced by the redevelopment works are offered a new 99-year lease in new flats constructed nearby. These residents have the privilege to select their units prior to public release of the remaining units, are compensated financially, and are given subsidised prices for their new flats, as well as other benefits, such as the being able to purchase flats in other locations under the same benefits offered for all affecting residents who purchase the offered replacement units.

However this has attracted opposition and controversy. The national government has power, under the Land Acquisitions Act of 1966, to carry out the Selective En Bloc scheme [Singapore Statutes OnLine [http://statutes.agc.gov.sg/non_version/cgi-bin/cgi_retrieve.pl?actno=REVED-152&doctitle=LAND%20ACQUISITION%20ACT%0a&date=latest&method=part Land Acquisition Act, Cap. 152] . Accessed February 12, 2006.] This power invokes the principle of eminent domain as with most urban redevelopment projects. The Amendments to the Land Titles Act passed in 1999 allowed housing estates to be sold against some of the apartment owner's will if the majority of the owners ruled against them. [Alice Christudason, (July 2, 2004). [http://www.enhr2004.org/files/papers/Christudaso.pdf Private sector housing redevelopment in Singapore: A review of the effectiveness of radical strata title legislation] . Accessed February 12, 2006.] Often this invoked concerns of majoritarianism.

List of SERS sites

References and notes

External links

* [http://www.hdb.gov.sg/hdbvsf/eampu200.nsf/0/default.html SERS Website]
* [http://www.hdb.gov.sg/fi10/fi10220p.nsf/WPDis/Selective%20En%20bloc%20Redevelopment%20Scheme%20(e-SERS)Overview?OpenDocument SERS Website 2]