When Mr Lawrence Wong said that even after CB lifts, CB measures will remain, everybody be like:
Especially for people in the renovation industry as well as the homeowners who are eagerly waiting to shift into their homes.
Many homeowners are looking forward to shifting into their new homes after renovations are completed but 7 Apr put a stop to that.
While contractors are eager to start work, some of them that were spoken to by Today said that there will definitely be more delays.
Renovations: A Highly Connected Industry
Several of their workers are stuck in Malaysia where the Movement Control Order (MCO) was extended once again until 9 June 2020.
Companies who want to resume operations must also have a system in place that can keep track of the health of every worker.
Other “safeguards” include housing all the workers of a project into one single dormitory and increased testing of the workers.
Another contractor pointed out that while their line of work might be approved to start operations, they work a lot with electricians, carpenters and plumbers, who might not be approved to start work from 1 June.
Increasing Costs
One other factor that contractors are worried about is cost.
Deploying workers exclusively to one projects, only having one subcontractor at the site at one time, doing more work off-site; these are factors that can definitely drive the cost up.
Which is bad especially when you consider that in renovations, the profit margins are already low (due to competition).
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Renovators who were spoken to, however, assured that they will not increase their charges during this period.
The contract has been signed and the amount stated upfront so if there are any changes to the price, it’s because the client has wanted some changes in the items requested.
Homeowner Made To Stay Elsewhere
While one homeowner says not shifting into her new home is a “blessing in disguise”, another homeowner is left biting his fingernails in limbo.
Turns out, he and his parents have sold their home and were getting ready to shift in to the new house.
When CB happened, he and his parents were essentially left homeless.
Thankfully, the buyer of their home was kind and allowed them to continue staying in their old home.
He had to, however, pay a monthly rental of $1,200 for the stay.
He was told to wait until 2 June for further information.
Calibrated & Deliberate Reopening
On 18 May, Mr Lawrence Wong said that lifting of CB doesn’t mean life goes back to normal.
Many Circuit Breaker measures, he warns, will continue even after CB is lifted.
For example, he said that he expects only 5% of the construction workforce will start to work after 1 June on “selected” projects.
And companies who are allowed to start work again must comply with new safeguards:
- all workers within the same project must live together in the same dormitory
- periodic testing of the workers with at least 2 weeks intervals
- social distancing at work
Only after the industry starts to gain confidence and experience with the measures, will they start to scale up.
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