Introduction
The Singapore government announced plans to rejuvenate the Tanglin Halt estate today.
The Tanglin Halt estate is one of the earliest public housing estate in Singapore. A large part of the older building, numbering about 3,480 flats, has been demolished after the Selective Enbloc Redevelopment (SERS) exercise in 2014. Newer HDB flats are built in their place.
The government plans to build another 5,500 flats and other facilities in the coming years in Tanglin Halt estate as part of the rejuvenation of this town.
New integrated development
Part of the rejuvenation is the development of an new Tanglin Halt Integrated Development, where it would house a hawker centre, a market and polyclinic together.
It is rare to have a hawker centre, a market and polyclinic all together under one roof. In the other older estates, you may find a hawker centre and a market under one roof; or a hawker centre and a polyclinic under one roof. But it is uncommon to have all three premises (a hawker centre, a market and polyclinic) together under one roof.
Such a development will bring much conveniences and is expected to be welcomed by the residents.
Source: Housing & Development Board
This development can also be a focal point of community and commercial activities for the residents of Tanglin Halt estate.
Source: Housing & Development Board
To attract younger homebuyers and not alienating the existing older residents
To attract younger homebuyers, the government should offer sufficient larger flats such as 4-room and 5-room HDB flats.
Within the town centre, there should be premises that offer services to young families and the elderly. For example, in the new Tanglin Halt Integrated Development, there could be childcare centre and tuition centres for young families. There could also be elder-care centres and shops that provide goods and services that caters to residents of different age groups.
Source: Housing & Development Board
Strong demand for housing
The demand for the new HDB flats in this location could potentially be quite strong, provided the conditions attached to owning the flats are not too onerous.
It is likely that the new BTO flats in the Tanglin Halt estate to be launched after mid-2024 to be classified as “Prime” flats, as they are located in the Central Region and are near to the Queens town MRT station. This means that the Prime flats will come with more restrictions that the Plus and Standard flats.
Furthermore, the BTO project launched in this month at Tanglin Halt estate called “Tanglin Halt Cascadia” was launched under the PLH (Prime Location Public Housing) model. Therefore, it is very likely that all the future BTO flats in the Tanglin Halt estate will be HDB “Prime” flats.
The government only offered 3-room and 4-room flats in the Tanglin Halt Cascadia project. I feel that there is demand from homebuyers for 5-room flats and hope that the authorities would offer 5-room flats for the benefit of young families that are growing.
Public housing prices in the Queenstown
An indication of the strong demand for public housing in Queenstown is the high resale prices of the flats in the estate. The median prices of the 3-, 4- and 5-room flats are higher than the nationwide median prices of the same flat types. (please see the table below)
This is especially true for the larger flats, such as the 4-room and 5-room flats, illustrating the strong demand for such flats.
Table 1: Median prices of HDB resale flats (January to September 2023)
Source: MOGUL.sg Research, HDB
In the first nine months of this year, a total of 336 HDB resale flats were sold for $1 million or more each. About 10% or 32 of the million-dollar flats are found in the Queenstown estate. This shows that the demand has outpaced the supply of family-size flats in this estate, leading to a significant number of high-value HDB resale flats.
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