More than half of the 30,000 public housing units in Tengah have been launched so far, as Singapore’s newest town takes shape four years after the first flats there were offered in 2018. Billed as a ‘forest town’, the 700ha area in the west – roughly the same size as Bishan – is the 24th Housing Board town and the first to be developed since Punggol two decades ago. HDB has launched a total of 18,555 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats across 18 projects in Tengah, as at the recently concluded sales exercise in February.
When Tengah is completed, it is estimated that it will provide 42,000 new homes – 30,000 HDB flats and 12,000 private housing units. The largely forested area is located between the existing towns of Jurong East, Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok, with the upcoming Jurong Lake District to its south and Tengah Air Base in the north, past the Kranji Expressway. Tengah is now a buzzing hive of building activity, with semi-constructed HDB blocks set against swathes of greenery in the distance. It will be a few more months before the first batch of residents move into their new homes.
HDB launched Plantation Grove, the first BTO project in the estate, in November 2018. The 1,620 two-room flexi, three-room, four-room, five-room and three-generation flats drew some 5,000 applicants. While initially slated to be ready in 2023, the completion of the project has been pushed back to 2024 because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Buyers who went for the estate’s second BTO project – Plantation Acres – which launched in May 2019 with a shorter waiting time, are expected to get their keys in the second half of 2023. Sun said the current housing supply crunch and rising HDB resale flat prices could have prompted some young couples to apply for a new flat in Tengah, where prices are more affordable and competition is not as intense.
Overall application rates in Tengah range from 1.4 to 4.3, which translates to about one to four applicants for each available flat. Across the 18 BTO projects in Tengah, median prices of four-room flats range from $322,500 to $354,500, while those of five-room flats range from $438,500 to $482,000. About 20 per cent of the land in Tengah is set aside for green spaces that will be woven through the town, from a large central park to ‘community farmways’ that run through housing estates with gardens and play areas.
A key feature in Tengah is a car-free town centre, where roads run underground to free up the ground level for retail and recreational use, and provide a bicycle-friendly environment. Residents in some BTO projects can opt for a centralised cooling system, which is more energy-efficient than conventional air-conditioning systems. Advanced construction methods that allow for a beamless flat design are also being trialled in two BTO projects.
