SINGAPORE: By 2030, Singapore is expected to have
700,000 new homes which will be located in new towns, existing
estates and the central region, where 200,000 of these units will
be completed by the end of 2016.
According to the Land Use Plan released on Thursday,
three new towns will be carved out.
One of them is Bidadari town where 11,000 housing
units, both private and public, are expected. Another town will be
created in Tampines North, which is slated to have 21,000
units.
The third town, Tengah, will have 55,000 units and be almost the
size of Ang Mo Kio Town.
Build-To-Order (BTO) projects can be expected in Bidadari and
Tampines North in the next two to three years while BTO projects
will come on stream in Tengah in the next three to five
years.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, National Development
Minister Khaw Boon Wan addressed concerns of affordability of BTO
flats. He said prices of BTO flats will not rise with resale flat
prices.
Mr Khaw added this has been the practice since he took over the
ministry in 2011 and will continue till the housing market
stabilises, and he pointed out that stable BTO prices also means
government subsidies have also increased.
Besides creating new towns, mature estates will also be rejuvenated
while existing towns like Punggol will also continue to be
developed.
When completed, Punggol will become one of the largest HDB towns in
Singapore with 96,000 units, three times its current size.
Mr Khaw said the green field sites in Punggol provides maximum
opportunity to plan even better new layout, new building forms, new
typology to ensure a better quality of life.
Analysts said expectations are high for new towns.
Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Realty Network, said: "For
example like Bidadari, it is seen as city-fringe housing. I think a
lot of people have seen how Bishan has evolved from a former
cemetery to a bustling and well sought after estate as it is today.
With Bishan being so successful, a lot of people have that same
expectation of Bidadari. There is a lot of interest and people are
actually waiting in anticipation for Bidadari to take off."
Housing will also be developed on vacant land within existing
estates across the island.
Under the Housing and Development Board's (HDB) Remaking Our
Heartland programme, more HDB estates will also be improved and
this will begin with Punggol, Yishun and Dawson in Queenstown.
Other towns like Hougang, East Coast, and Jurong Lake District will
follow.
More homes will also be built in the central region, including the
Bukit Turf Club, Kallang Riverside, Bukit Brown and Keppel
areas.
It is hoped that this will allow more Singaporeans to live close to
where they work.
Analysts expect such supply to moderate resale HDB flat
prices.
Chris Koh, director at Chris International, said potential buyers
who decided to hold their purchase due to the new cooling measures
introduced in January will continue to stay on the sidelines to
monitor the situation.
Mr Koh said: "The moment you have supply outweighing demand, prices
will have to adjust. Perhaps in the short term, we won't see the
supply outweighing the demand yet because the demand is still very
strong so the demand will soak up the supply. Once we have all the
supply soaked up and more supply coming in and demand doesn't
change or demand comes down, then we should see price
adjusting."
And it is not just about building more houses in new towns. The
government said there is scope to make parks more accessible.
The government also hopes to let at least 85 per cent of
Singaporeans to live within 10 to 15 minutes of a park by 2030, up
from the current 80 per cent.
Park connectors will also be extended from 200 kilometres to 360
kilometres.
A S$43-million National Cycling Pilot Programme is also underway to
construct dedicated off-road cycling paths in seven HDB towns to
facilitate intra-town cycling.
- CNA/ck/fa
