HDB offers virtual flat viewing
- Project EyeBall News 15 January 2001

By Eugene Wee
15 January 2001 07:00AM

HDB offers virtual tour of its showflats and new towns

' This site is to cater to those who do not have the time to go down to the showflats, but want to get a sense of what it is like.'

- Tay Kim Poh,
HDB's chief estate administration and property officer

IT'S almost as good as being there.

Almost.

From today, HDB flat buyers who have no time to visit the showflats can view the properties online at the HDB InfoWeb website. Called @Home with HDB, the website allows you to view actual showflats and their surrounding precincts in virtual reality.

Using a multimedia application embedded on the site, you can take a tour of the bedrooms, toilets and kitchens of a four-room flat in Jurong West and a five-room flat in Sengkang, both renovated and fully furnished. The software lets you view a room as if you were standing right in the middle of it. You can look at the ceiling and admire the lights, look down and examine the floor, and all around to get a sense of the layout.

The software also allows you to zoom in to any part of the room you want to check out.'' This site is to cater to those who do not have the time to go down to the showflats, but want to get a sense of what it is like,'' said Tay Kim Poh, HDB's chief estate administration and property officer.'' For those who have already applied for the flats, they can log on and see the unit, to plan how they can decorate their flat, based on the pictures, layout and floorplan.'' The site also allows surfers to take a ''walk'' through the surrounding neighbourhood of the new town, exploring areas like the landscaping, playgrounds, carpark lobbies and pavilions. Downloading each ''area'' takes two to three minutes if you are using a dial-up modem, or a few seconds for a broadband connection.

Currently, only the two showflats and a precinct tour of Sengkang are available. According to Tay, not only are there plans to put more physical showflats online, HDB is also working on including virtual ones, which have yet to be built. "The next step is to actually put online a virtual reproduction of the architect's perspective of the flat,'' he said.

Instead of building and renovating a physical showflat, a virtual one is built on the computer using the architect's plans and designs, he explained.'' This will allow people to select different options for the type of decoration they want to see in the house,'' said Tay.

''We can't do this today because the technology isn't available to us yet.'' Useful as it may be, potential HDB owners Eyeball spoke to said they would still prefer to see the showflat in reality before signing on the dotted line.'' It's useful to get a general idea of what the flat looks like on the virtual tour,'' said Joanna Tan, a 26-year-old civil servant.

''But I still want to be able to physically look out the window, see the surroundings, and feel the general vibe of the flat before I consider applying for it.''

Take A Look Around

Other Features
MORE useful online services on the HDB InfoWeb:

Electronic flat application:
Apply for a four- or five-room flat online.

Distance enquiry for CPF housing grant:
Lets you find out if two HDB blocks are in the same town or within 2 km of each other.

Enquiry of maximum loan and monthly installments:
An online calculator helps you compute the estimated maximum loan required, and monthly payments when you buy a flat direct from HDB.

Enquiry of estimated waiting time to select a flat:
Lets you check how long you need to wait before you can choose your flat, after applying for it.

External Links
To take a virtual tour of an HDB showflat, log on to http://www.hdb.gov.sg/ and click on the @Home with HDB icon.

For you to go on the virtual tour, your computer needs the following minimum requirements: Pentium II 233Mhz; 32MB RAM; Netscape Navigator 4.0 or Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0; and a 56K dial-up modem or broadband connection.