New private homes planned in Paterson, Newton areas
An integrated development is being planned above the Orchard MRT interchange
[SINGAPORE] The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) has unveiled plans for new neighbourhoods in the Paterson, Newton, Greater one-north and Defu areas, among other locations, under the Draft Master Plan 2025.
A roughly 10-hectare (ha) stretch in the Paterson Road area near Orchard Road is proposed for development as a predominantly residential neighbourhood with about 1,000 new private homes. These will be complemented by a mix of uses (such as retail, food and beverage and office spaces) and public spaces and amenities in a proposed integrated development.
The site for this mixed-use integrated development, which will sit atop the Orchard MRT interchange, is about 3.5 ha.
The Paterson neighbourhood will have frontages along Paterson Road, Orchard Boulevard and Grange Road; the entire site is on state land, which should facilitate the realisation of the plans through the government land sales (GLS) Programme, observers said.
Nearly two decades ago, the Orchard Turn site across the road – above the Orchard station on the North-South Line – was sold at a GLS tender for S$1.38 billion (or S$1,020 per square foot per plot ratio) to a partnership between CapitaLand and Sun Hung Kai Properties. This eventually became the Ion Orchard mall and The Orchard Residences.
The new Newton neighbourhood to come up on a 26-ha site next to the namesake MRT interchange station is envisaged as a “vibrant, mixed-use ‘urban village’ set amid greenery and anchored on its unique identity”, said URA.
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New homes will be introduced progressively around three distinct clusters in Newton Circus, Scotts Road and Monk’s Hill, and provide current and future residents with a wide range of community living experiences.
URA said: “A new amenity node with high-density and mixed-use developments anchored by a central public space envisaged as a ‘village square’ will be introduced next to Newton MRT station (on the North-South Line) and Newton Food Centre to provide residents with amenities and more food options.”
Public spaces will be created for residents to unwind and interact as a community.
Monk’s Hill Road will be turned into a linear park, framed by existing mature trees and heritage buildings that will be integrated within the new neighbourhood. This green corridor will link Newton MRT interchange to Emerald Hill.
The Newton neighbourhood is expected to generate about 5,000 private homes.
A 99-year private housing site in the Newton neighbourhood is slated for launch in August under the confirmed list of the second-half 2025 GLS programme, noted Professor Sing Tien Foo, provost chair professor of real estate at the National University of Singapore Business School.
“It’s going to be important to see how the market responds. If this attracts strong demand, more land can be released in this area,” he added.
Giving his take, Chua Yang Liang, head of South-east Asia research at JLL, said: “The concept of a village square in Newton and a mixed-use hub in Paterson should be of strong interest to developers.”
According to PropNex chief executive officer Ismail Gafoor, homes in Newton and the Paterson/Orchard areas tend to be popular with owner-occupiers, investors and renters alike, due to their convenient location, range of amenities nearby and transport connectivity.
“After a few years without any new major condo launches in these areas, we think the injection of new private homes will garner interest,” he added.
ABSD dampener
With the doubling in the Additional Buyer’s Stamp Duty on foreign buyers to 60 per cent since late April 2023, Gafoor expects the demand for private homes in the prime areas (which include Newton and Orchard) to be increasingly made up of Singapore citizens and permanent residents (PRs).
Based on caveats lodged, in the Orchard planning area, foreign (non-PR) buyers picked up 8.3 per cent of the total number of non-landed private homes sold so far this year (based on URA Realis data up to Jun 17). This is a sharp drop from a nearly 45 per cent share in each of 2019 and 2020.
In the Newton planning area, foreign buyers’ share has slipped from a high of 23.5 per cent in 2023 to 4.1 per cent so far this year, showed the PropNex analysis.
URA’s Draft Master Plan shows that in the Greater one-north knowledge hub, a new neighbourhood, Dover-Medway, has been earmarked for a mix of public and private homes complemented by new amenities and recreational spaces.
The new housing will help bring homes closer to work.
The development of Dover-Medway will be paced over many years. The first phase will focus on the eastern section near one-north and Kent Ridge MRT stations, capitalising on the transport connectivity to benefit future residents. About 6,000 housing units will be provided in the first phase.
A 99-year private housing site along Dover Road in the Dover-Medway area is on the confirmed list of the H2 2025 GLS programme announced earlier in June. It can accommodate about 625 housing units and 3,000 square metres (sq m) gross floor area of commercial space. The land parcel is on vacant state land.
More land in the area will become available for redevelopment into homes when Singapore Institute of Technology @ Dover and United World College of South East Asia (Dover Campus) relocate to Punggol and Tengah, respectively.
State-owned bungalows are located in the western section, where development will take place only in the longer term, URA said. “Agencies will study the plans in further detail in the coming years,” it added.
The Defu industrial belt next to Paya Lebar Air Base is on land leased to JTC and state-owned land. The locale is slated to be turned into a community-centric neighbourhood with live, work and play options. The area’s connectivity will be boosted with an MRT station on the Cross Island Line.
Paya Lebar Air Base will be relocated from the 2030s, freeing up about 800 ha of land for the development of a new town in eastern Singapore, lifting some building height restrictions around it.
It will feature a network of green and blue spaces, well-connected mobility options and a civic heart built around the area’s aviation heritage. Historical elements such as the old airport structures and a section of the runway will be adaptively reused and integrated into the new community.
In the north, the site occupied by the former Singapore Racecourse in Kranji will be redeveloped into a new housing estate with about 14,000 public and private homes in a lush, riverine setting, with new leisure and recreational activities, said URA.
After the relocation of existing uses from 2028, the Sembawang Shipyard area will be “progressively transformed into a distinctive mixed-use waterfront district” with housing, amenities and jobs, said URA.
The Singapore Institute of Architects and the Singapore Institute of Planners have proposed concept schemes and ideas.
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