Assessors from the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will conduct inspections on a new public housing unit – checking the quality, workmanship and whether it is safe to live in – before keys to the apartment are presented to the homeowners, reported The Straits Times.
The checks will be scored under the Construction Quality Assessment System (Conquas), reflecting the unit’s overall workmanship quality. As such, a higher score implies better workmanship.
Aside from structural works, the Conquas score also takes into account electrical and mechanical works.
Despite recent reports of defects found in several new Build-to-Order (BTO) flats, the housing board revealed that the Conquas score for HDB flats has been steadily increasing.
In fact, the average HDB Conquas score improved from 65.7 in 1989 to 88.6 in 2014. Notably, public housing projects have been registering a Conquas score of more than 81 since 2008.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of National Development (MND) attributed the higher score to “a robust framework of quality assurance and checks that HDB has put in place”.
But due to the “high dependency on workmanship of individual workers”, imperfections may still be found in some units.
Latent defects as well as defects like hairline cracks may also be discovered at a later date due to movement like renovation works and vibrations, said the spokesperson.
“For these reasons, a one-year Defect Liability Period is provided for all projects, to allow for rectification if necessary,” she said.
She noted that common feedback includes colour inconsistency for timber flooring, uneven joints or gaps between tiles and hairline wall cracks.
“These do not affect the structural integrity of the building, and can be rectified easily and quickly. (They) do not compromise the functionality or livability of these homes,” she added.
“The high Conquas score is an affirmation that the quality of HDB flats has not been compromised despite the ramp-up of our building programme in the last few years.”
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Singapore Editor at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
