BCA orders developer to stop work on Kingsford Waterbay

Tue, Feb 27, 2018

Lynette Khoo


KINGSFORD Development's condominium project in Upper Serangoon View has hit a snag, after the Singapore authorities issued an order to the developer to stop building works because of its failure to meet certain requirements.

When contacted, the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) confirmed that an order has been issued to the Chinese developer under the Building Control Act for its 1,165-unit project Kingsford Waterbay.

BCA said it had on Nov 22 last year received feedback on suspected construction safety issues at the project.

"BCA engineers carried out a site inspection and observed that some building works such as windows, barriers and common storey shelter had deviated from requirements under the Building Control Act and Regulations," a BCA spokesman told The Business Times.

"Given the deviations observed, BCA issued an Order on Dec 1, 2017 to the developer to stop building works."

Under the Order, qualified persons are required to verify compliance with the building works against the approved plans and the requirements set out in the Building Control Act and Regulations, and the developer has to carry out rectifications as required by the Commissioner of Building Control.

"The Order will only be withdrawn when all the necessary rectification works have been completed to the satisfaction of the Commissioner," BCA said.

Kingsford Development, which won its first residential site here in 2012, is owned by three Chinese nationals including its chairman Cui Zhengfeng, as well as Shenyang Kingsford Fulicheng House Development.

The main contractor for its development projects is Kingsford Construction, set up in 2012 with Mr Cui as the sole shareholder and director.

When contacted, the Mandarin-speaking Mr Cui maintained that there were no construction issues concerning Kingsford Waterbay and that his company is working to resolve the matter with BCA. He claimed the allegations were made by an unhappy sub-contractor.

The 1,165-unit project is being built on two amalgamated government land sale sites. Some 975 units were sold as at end-2017 at an average S$1,188 per square foot (psf). The project was slated to receive its temporary occupation permit by the end of this year.

Mr Cui said he had planned to complete the project half-a-year earlier than the deadline. But due to the Order from BCA, he now plans to complete the project on schedule.

This is not the first time the Kingsford group, hailing from the Chinese province of Shenyang, has drawn flak for lapses in its construction.

For its first residential project in Singapore, Kingsford Hillview Peak in Upper Bukit Timah, the main contractor Kingsford Construction was fined S$130,000 last year under the Workplace Safety and Health Act (WSHA) for not tending to safety lapses at the worksite of the Hillview Peak project, despite having been penalised twice previously.

The construction firm was earlier issued stop-work orders by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) and fined a total of S$29,000 for safety lapses flagged by MOM inspectors in October 2014 and May 2015. But these safety lapses resurfaced and were uncovered in June 2016.

In its hometown Shenyang, the Kingsford group is close to selling out phase two of a residential project and is slated to launch a new 7,500-unit project in August, Mr Cui said.