For 30 years now, Mr Wang Zheng Kun, 75, has been living in a two-room rental flat in Ang Mo Kio. His is a sad story.

He and his wife were divorced in 1961, a year after they got married and a week after their only daughter, now 47, was born. 'We just couldn't get along,' he said.

The divorcee, who was working at the Hotel New World in Serangoon Road, asked his mother, a Malaysian, to stay with him in a staff hostel to take care of his baby daughter. In 1980, they moved into the HDB subsidised flat.

Fast forward three decades. Mr Wang's daughter, who is now a stall assistant, is married, has two children and lives in a four-room Sengkang flat. His mother has since died.

He now lives with his brother in the flat and pays the $50 rent using his CPF savings. When asked why he has not moved in with his daughter, Mr Wang said: 'Children, after marriage and family, want to stay on their own.'

Probed further, he simply said: 'She never asked me, how to go?'

Similar stories are playing out across rental-flat estates. Several elderly people said their children have moved out but they are still living in rental flats, some for 40 years.

On Aug 23, Minister Mah Bow Tan, noting this, said: 'If they can afford to own a flat or they have children already living in a flat, we encourage them to move out...For everyone who can afford to own a flat and does so, we will free up one flat for a more needy person.'

But many elderly folk said they are used to living in their estate and enjoy their independence. Among them is Madam Ng Peng Hong, 60, who has been living in a two-room rental flat in Jalan Bukit Merah with her husband since 1968. Her two grown children are living in four- and five-room flats.

'It should be those who sold their flats and are now staying in rental flats who should move out, not us,' she said.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 31, 2008.