PM Lee: We will also do more to help seniors stay engaged and socially active. The Active Ageing Centres (AACs), which have been set up all over Singapore, give seniors something to do with their friends, something to look forward to, a sense of purpose.

PM Lee: At AACs, seniors also help organise and run activities – seniors for seniors. They cook hot meals and deliver them to frail seniors in rental flats. They also have communal meals at the AAC, where seniors can socialise and make friends.

PM Lee: I believe AACs will be a valuable resource for seniors to stay active and healthy. We will invest significantly to expand the network, and work with community partners to enhance the AACs’ services and reach.

PM Lee: We want to make our HDB homes and precincts more senior-friendly. This will help as many seniors age in place. Seniors can now opt for more fittings under EASE 2.0, such as foldable shower seats and widened toilet entrances.

PM Lee: We will also make it safer and more comfortable for seniors to move about in their neighbourhoods:

Build more shelters and rest points along streets and linkways frequented by seniors.
Larger and more colourful block signs.
Therapeutic gardens, fitness trails and exercise machines to help seniors stay active.
Roads will also be made more pedestrian-friendly with longer green man signals, and barrier-free ramps and raised zebra crossings for wheelchair users

PM Lee: For seniors who need more help, we will build more assisted living facilities. HDB’s Community Care Apartments will serve seniors suffering from dementia, and also those who are well. We will need a whole range of these facilities to serve old folks with different needs.

PM Lee: Be it through active ageing, or by making our homes and precincts more senior-friendly, we are taking major steps to prepare for a super-aged society.

These steps will be part of a new programme called “Age Well SG”, which will complement Healthier SG in improving the health of our seniors.

HDB is a vital part of the Singapore story. It gives every Singaporean an asset and a reason to fight for our country and our future. 8 in 10 Singaporeans live in HDB flats. Our Singaporean identity is deeply intertwined with our HDB flats and towns.

The govt has kept housing affordable and accessible for Singaporeans by pricing them at a discount and providing a wide range of grants. COVID disrupted our public housing programme but we are ramping up supply and the market is calming down.

Our housing landscape is evolving. There are fewer and fewer large tracts of undeveloped land left to build new towns and estates. We will increasingly have to build new HDB flats within or near to existing estates. Even what we call “Non-Mature Estates” have become much more developed today. With the distinction between “Mature” and “Non-Mature Estates” blurring, a new framework is needed.

PM Lee: The new framework has to achieve 3 important objectives. First, it has to keep home ownership affordable to all income groups. Second, it has to maintain a good social mix in every town and region. Lastly, it has to keep the system fair for everyone.

PM Lee: In future, most HDB projects will be “Standard” projects with the current familiar and standard BTO rules such as the 5-year MOP, and no income ceiling for resale buyers.

PM Lee: We will introduce a new “Plus” model for HDB flats at choicer locations within a region. More subsidies will be given for these flats, but they will have a longer MOP of 10 years and tighter restrictions when the home-owner resells the flat later on.

Prime Location Public Housing Model or “Prime” projects for short, are in the choicest & most central locations. These flats are very desirable & will be more expensive. They will have the most subsidies & tightest restrictions.

This new framework of Standard, Plus and Prime flats will be a major change to the way HDB sells flats.

“Standard” flats are good flats built all over Singapore, and will have HDB’s standard subsidies and restrictions.

“Plus” flats are in choicer locations within a region and will have more subsidies and tighter restrictions than “Standard” flats.

“Prime” flats are in the most choicest and central locations in Singapore, and will have the most subsidies and tightest restrictions.

HDB will roll out this framework for all new projects from the 2nd half of 2024.

PM Lee: Integrity and incorruptibility are fundamental to Singapore. They are the foundation on which we run a clean government and deliver results for Singaporeans. No matter the price; no matter the embarrassment or political cost – I will do my utmost to keep the system clean. Every generation of PAP leaders must stand by this.

PM Lee: One crucial task of preparing for the future is leadership renewal. I have every confidence in DPM Lawrence Wong and his team.

We share the same core convictions that we are stewards of Singapore, entrusted with the immense responsibility to lead and care for our nation.

Please give him and his team your fullest support too, now and after they take over.

The Singapore story has been an unlikely one from the start. It has been an exceptional story; but I believe the best parts are still to be written.

Let us hold fast to our values, mutual trust and dreams and come together with a renewed spirit and vigour, a semangat yang baru, to build a better, brighter Singapore for generations to come! Majulah Singapura!