Property Herald: Future high-rise housing towers planned at Jurong East

Introduction

The Singapore government is planning to raise the maximum plot ratio of a piece of land in Jurong East that house the former Shuqun Secondary School. The school buildings currently stand vacant on the land parcel as they have been vacated since early 2019 after the school merged with Yuhua Secondary School.

Description of the land parcel

The subject land parcel is at the junction of Jurong East Street 21 and Jurong East Avenue 1. It measures about 30,000 sq m in size with a plot ratio of 3.5 times based on the Master Plan 2025.

The plot ratio is part of the urban planning regulation. It controls the property development intensity of the land parcel. It determines the total permissible built-up floor area relative to the size of the land parcel.

Source: Mogul.sg Research, Onemap

The URA proposed to raise the plot ratio from the current 3.5 times to 5.0 times. The typical plot ratio of residential land parcels around the Jurong East MRT Station is 2.8 to 3.5 times.

Highest plot ratio for residential site in Jurong East

The proposed plot ratio of 5.0 times for the subject site will be the highest plot ratio for a residential site in the Jurong East area. In addition, the magnitude of the increase in the plot ratio for this site is unusual and substantial in nature.

The current highest plot ratio for a residential land parcel in the area around the Jurong East MRT Station is 4.2 times for the site of the development, J Gateway.

Rationale for upping the development

The area around the Jurong East MRT interchange is well-developed with very little vacant land available for new residential development. In addition, the Jurong East town centre, where the Jurong East MRT interchange also serves as the regional centre for the western region.

Furthermore, the Jurong East MRT interchange is one of the earliest MRT interchanges that connects two of the busiest MRT lines in Singapore. Hence, the demand for housing near this major transport node is understandably robust.

Source: URA

The attractive locational attributes coupled with low supply due to the lack of new residential projects in this neighbourhood would result in strong demand for any new public or private residential development in this location.

Hence, any available residential development land will be valuable and development space on the site should be maximised by raising the plot ratio and building height limit.

The subject site at Jurong East Street 21 is owned by the state. The increase in the plot ratio of the subject site, which is about 850 metres from the Jurong East MRT interchange, shows that the government is willing and able to raise the plot ratio for residential sites, provided the sites are owned by the State.

So far, we have yet to observe any substantial increase in plot ratio for privately owned non-landed residential sites in the current Master Plan.

Future development

Jurong East is one of the four regional town centres in Singapore. Compared to other regional centres, such as Tampines, there is limited new private residential launches in this area. The most recent private housing launch was J’Den in Nov 2023.

A new housing project regardless of whether it is HDB or private housing, would likely be met with unbridled enthusiasm from homebuyers and investors.

Table 1: Recent private housing project launched at Jurong East

Name of private housing project	Location	Completion Date	Launch date	Total Units in project	Median price, past 1 year ($psf)
J'Den	Jurong East Central 1	Uncompleted	11-Nov-23	368	$2,356
J Gateway	Gateway Drive	2016	13-Jun-13	738	$2,143

Source: Mogul.sg Research

If the government decides to build public housing on this 3-hectare land parcel, an estimated 1,250 to 1,400 HDB flats could be developed on this site.

Alternatively, the government could divide up this site into 2 to 3 land parcels and sell them separately to real estate developers. The entire 3-hectare site could yield about 1,650 to 1,750 private condominium units.