The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) is working with the Housing and Development Board (HDB) to assist owners of Hock Kee House (HKH) who are eligible, to buy HDB flats as alternative accommodation. In view of the special circumstances, HDB will waive, for the owners of HKH, the 30-month waiting period that applies to former owners of private property who want to buy new HDB flats. So far, owners of 6 units have requested for HDB's assistance.
Besides the owners of HKH, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is aware that there are tenants who are also affected and have to relocate. Apart from the assistance that they can obtain from the owners who are their landlords, LTA has also been in touch with many of these tenants and is looking into how it can assist them.
According to the SLA, owners will be paid the current market values of their properties. The current market values are best guided by the sale transactions which have taken place in recent years, after the Circle Line (CCL) project was announced in 2001. The most recent transaction of a unit in Hock Kee House was in 2004.

Why HKH is being acquired now
In response to media queries on why the Government did not acquire Hock Kee House (HKH) in 2003, LTA has said that acquisition was considered only after monitoring and assessment over the past year showed that the building would not be able to withstand the further ground movement that would occur when deep excavation works resumed, and when all other options to safeguard Hock Kee House were found to be not feasible. The sequence of actions that led to this is explained below.
In 2003, when LTA became aware that HKH was built on footings, it took steps to strengthen the design of the temporary works to reduce the settlement of the building due to deep excavation. At that time, it was assessed that HKH could be preserved despite the deep excavation works. Hence, there was no basis to acquire HKH in 2003 or earlier. LTA continued to monitor the building as construction progressed.
In April 2004, excavation next to HKH was put on hold after the incident at Nicoll Highway, as LTA carried out additional checks and reviews of the design of temporary works for all its projects that involved deep excavation. Meanwhile, the settlement readings at HKH revealed that more had to be done to enable the building to withstand further ground movement that was likely to occur when deep excavation resumes.
LTA then studied how the building could be strengthened. It also considered alternative alignment of the Circle Line to minimize impact on the building. Its study, however, showed that none of these measures would be feasible. More importantly, the findings showed that the building would not be able to withstand the ground movement that was likely to be caused by deep excavation works. Moreover, any strengthening works, such as underpinning, may de-stabilise the building and are not likely to be fully effective in ensuring the safety of the building/occupants when construction resumes.
It was only after all the above options were exhausted that, in the interest of public safety, the Government decided to acquire HKH and demolish it before allowing any excavation in the area to resume.

Use of Public Funds
There have been comments in the media that the funds that will be used to compensate HKH residents are public funds. LTA is mindful that the financial assistance it is providing comes from public funds, and must be spent judiciously. Hence, requests from owners/ tenants for additional assistance will have to be considered carefully and provided only if there is strong justification.
The land to be acquired was gazetted on 11 August 2005. The occupants of HKH will have to move out of their properties by 12 September 2005. Owners of properties in HKH will be compensated according to the provisions of the LAA.

Public funds are also an important reason why work on the CCL project has to resume as soon as possible. Every day of non-resumption of work will result in additional project costs that eventually has to be borne by taxpayers. There are also opportunity costs for commuters resulting from any delay in the future opening date of the line that have to be taken into account. LTA will endeavour to minimise the overall impact on public funds while balancing between the interests of different stakeholders.

Issued by:
The Land Transport Authority
18 August 2005