New rules to ensure accuracy of showflats

The Ministry of National Development (MND) intends to announce new regulations to ensure that showflats created by property developers accurately represent the actual units in a project, sources revealed to The Business Times.

The move is designed to guarantee that home buyers are not deceived by the interior design work at showflats, which are used by developers to attract buyers before the completion of a residential project.

Property developers have been known to exclude structural columns and walls when creating showflats, to make apartments appear more spacious. They also avoid clearly marking the start of a balcony, making living rooms appear larger.

Under the new rules, property developers will be prohibited from excluding structural columns and walls from their showflats, if these structures are featured in the project’s completed units.

Structural walls in showflats and in the actual homes will also have to be of the same thickness, while non-structural walls will need to be clearly marked out. In addition, showflat ceiling heights will have to be accurately reflected.

MND will likely launch a consultation exercise in the next few weeks, prior to the finalisation of the new regulations, which could be imposed in the second half of 2011, said BT.

Analysts welcomed the proposed rules, which are deemed advantageous to genuine owner-occupier home buyers.

“This ought to have been done some time ago to weed out unscrupulous developers,” said Tan Tiong Cheng, Chairman of Knight Frank.

“The whole idea of building a showflat is to illustrate the possibility of what can be done with the actual unit. If the interior design work is misleading  ̶  such as when structural walls and columns are left out  ̶  then the point is lost; you can't do that with your own unit,” he said.