Fate of golf courses in land-scarce Singapore

BACK in January 2013, a population white paper was released by the National Population and Talent Division to set out key considerations and a roadmap for Singapore's population policies to address the country's demographic challenge.

Focus has been on developing land to meet this growth and by 2030 more than half of Singapore's land will be allocated to uses which enable Singaporeans to live, work and play in a high quality environment.

To support this growth in population - which could rise to around 6.9 million by 2030 - Singapore will need to reclaim additional land, intensify new development, and recycle land with lower intensive uses such as old industrial areas and some golf courses to achieve higher land productivity, among others.