Two Tiong Bahru HDB Blocks Will Get HIP Upgrading After a Successful Re-Poll

In results published in November 2025, Block 34 fell short by two votes at 67 per cent, and Block 35 by one vote at 73 per cent. Block 34 has 24 units and Block 35 has 15. The two were among 29 blocks in the neighbourhood that voted, and the other 27 went ahead.

After the first poll, HDB and the Seng Poh Residents’ Network kept reaching out to residents who could not be contacted, including owners of tenanted units. Residents whose flats had been upgraded opened their homes so neighbours could see the finished work. A straw poll in July 2026 suggested the threshold could now be met, and HDB agreed to a re-poll. Works start in November and should be completed by the end of January 2027.

HIP was launched in 2007 to address common maintenance problems in older flats, such as spalling concrete. It goes ahead only if at least 75 per cent of a block’s eligible Singaporean households vote in favour. Permanent resident households cannot vote. In small blocks, a handful of absent or undecided owners can decide the result.

Six blocks have failed to reach 75 per cent over the last ten years: one in Serangoon Avenue 2 in 2017, three in Lengkong Tiga in 2023 and the two in Tiong Bahru. All of them have now passed on a re-poll held about a year after the first. In January, National Development Minister Chee Hong Tat said the authorities were studying whether blocks with fewer units could be grouped together for HIP voting.