Heat-reflective paint initiative to be rolled out to all HDB estates by 2030

An initiative to coat Housing Board blocks with heat-reflective paint will be rolled out to all HDB estates by 2030, after a pilot project in Tampines showed that the cool paint reduced ambient temperatures by up to 2 deg C.

- Wong Yang

The scheme will be offered to all town councils over the next five years, with the Government paying the extra costs from using the more expensive cool coatings instead of conventional paint.

Senior Minister of State for National Development Tan Kiat How said on Feb 3 that scaling up this initiative to all existing estates will cost the Government an additional $60 million.

HDB said in a statement that public housing blocks will also be fitted with smart electrical sub-meters from the second quarter of 2025 to track energy consumption patterns and the performance of common services, such as lifts, lights and water pumps, in each block.

These are among new initiatives and updates to the Green Towns Programme that Mr Tan announced on Feb 3.

The scheme is a 10-year plan launched in 2020 to make existing HDB towns more sustainable and liveable by 2030 through cooling them, reducing energy consumption and recycling rainwater.

At a media visit to an HDB estate in Woodlands Drive 71, where several Green Towns initiatives have been implemented, Mr Tan said the programme has achieved good progress since it was launched five years ago, and that HDB will build on this foundation to step up its efforts to scale up the initiatives across HDB towns.

The expanded use of heat-reflective paint comes after a two-year pilot launched in 2021 by HDB and Tampines Town Council to apply cool coatings on the facades of some 130 HDB blocks in the estate.