When you’ve lived in Singapore for some time, you already know this metropolis doesn’t sit nonetheless. Each 5 years, the City Redevelopment Authority (URA) releases a Grasp Plan outlining how Singapore will evolve over the subsequent decade and past.
The upcoming URA Grasp Plan 2025 (DMP2025) builds on the inspiration of 2019’s plan, and it guarantees to reshape the way in which we dwell, work, and join with the town.
Whether or not you’re planning your subsequent dwelling, excited about the place to take a position, or just interested in your neighbourhood’s future, the Grasp Plan is value taking note of.
Desk of Contents
- From promise to progress: What the 2019 Grasp Plan delivered
- What’s new within the Draft Grasp Plan 2025?
- What this implies for residents
From promise to progress: What the 2019 Grasp Plan delivered
Again in 2019, the URA targeted on three key priorities: constructing extra various and inclusive neighbourhoods, enhancing connectivity, and revitalising older elements of the town. A few of the flagship tasks from that plan are already starting to take form.
Right here’s an in depth have a look at these tasks:
1. Tengah
Tengah has emerged as one in all Singapore’s latest housing cities, designed round inexperienced residing and a car-free city centre. Since its launch in 2018, over 11,000 BTO flats have been rolled out throughout precincts like Backyard Vines, Plantation Grove, and Park District, with a complete projected 42,000 properties.
The primary wave of residents started shifting in throughout late 2023, and extra keys can be handed over via 2025.
Tengah can be the primary city deliberate with good vitality programs and autonomous car corridors, marking a daring shift in how HDB cities are conceptualised and constructed.
Learn extra in regards to the neighbourhood of Tengah right here.
2. Punggol Digital District
The brand new Punggol Coast MRT station is now operational (opened December 2024), SIT is relocating its pupil inhabitants in phases, and early industrial tenants have begun establishing.
Projected to be totally accomplished in 2026, the district will help 28,000 tech jobs and home 12,000 college students. As of February 2024, JTC had obtained planning clearance for eight buildings inside PDD.
Do you know? Punggol has the most variety of MOP flats in 2025. When you’re trying to find a house close to the PDD, head over to our portal to seek out the most inexpensive choices!
3. The Rail Hall
The Rail Hall traces its origins to the Singapore-Kranji Railway, which was constructed between 1900 and 1903 underneath British colonial rule. Since its transformation, 21 kilometres of the Rail Hall are open to the general public, with ongoing enhancements at key nodes reminiscent of Kranji, Bukit Timah Railway Station, Buona Vista, and the previous Bukit Timah Hearth Station. Extra sections and facilities are being developed to enhance accessibility and person expertise.
The fifth node (former Bukit Timah Hearth Station) is due in 2025, with others like Queensway and Stagmont Ring in later phases.
4. The Better Southern Waterfront
The Better Southern Waterfront (GSW) is a serious city transformation challenge alongside Singapore’s southern shoreline, stretching from Pasir Panjang to Marina East and overlaying about 2,000 hectares. It goals to create a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood with a mixture of private and non-private housing, inexperienced areas, and heritage websites.
Key areas embrace the Pasir Panjang Energy District, Keppel Membership website, and Mount Faber, all set for phased growth. Since 2019, progress has included public engagement initiatives, planning for improved connectivity, and preparations for brand spanking new residential precincts. The Keppel Membership website alone (48 hectares) will ship over 9,000 properties.
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What’s new within the DMP2025?
Whereas earlier Grasp Plans had been typically targeted on spatial effectivity, housing, and infrastructure, the Draft Grasp Plan 2025 introduces a noticeable shift in philosophy: a stronger concentrate on high quality of life, local weather resilience, and socio-cultural cohesion.
It’s not nearly the place buildings go, however how they make life higher; for each right now’s and tomorrow’s residents.
1. Smarter and extra inclusive housing
The largest headline is the push to construct extra properties in central and fringe areas like Marina South, Mount Nice, and Kranji. That is the primary time the URA has explicitly focused such centrally situated, undeveloped land parcels for mass housing.
- Marina South: Envisioned as a sustainable seafront city with round 10,000 new properties, the primary BTO challenge is anticipated to be launched in 2026. It is going to function car-lite design, built-in transport nodes, and waterfront public areas.
- Mount Nice: Redevelopment of the Previous Police Academy website will introduce a brand new public housing precinct nestled inside greenery, delicate to the heritage buildings on website.
- Queenstown: Even mature estates are being retrofitted for inclusivity, with public rental flats and two-room flexi models to assist single seniors and lower-income teams stay in well-connected neighbourhoods.
2. Local weather-conscious city planning
DMP2025 alerts Singapore’s strongest dedication but to city planning within the age of local weather danger. These are a few of the initiatives the URA plans to undertake within the following years to mitigate local weather danger:
- Lengthy Island Reclamation Undertaking: A brand new 800-hectare zone off East Coast Park that may function each a sea-level defence (with a 7-metre excessive barrier) and a future housing and recreation district. This scale of ahead planning has by no means been seen earlier than in Singapore’s coastal infrastructure technique.
- Nature-based coastal safety: As an alternative of gray concrete partitions, new “residing seawalls” and park-lined coastlines can be constructed to double as flood limitations and leisure areas — particularly alongside the East Coast and Southern waterfront.
- Obligatory flood danger buffers and air flow corridors: URA is integrating climate-resilient city design tips, reminiscent of higher air stream and tree protection necessities, throughout new developments.
3. Vertical integration of actual property
Whereas the 2019 plan promoted mixed-use zoning (e.g. places of work + retail), DMP2025 takes it additional with “vertical zoning” which envisions total buildings stacked with completely different city capabilities.
For instance, a single high-rise may include:
- Retail and meals shops on the bottom ground
- Co-working or gentle industrial labs on the center flooring
- Rental flats or dormitories for employees on the higher flooring
This enables job hubs to be embedded inside residential nodes, reducing down commuting and boosting street-level vibrancy. Areas like Sungei Kadut and Jurong Innovation District are anticipated to pilot this type of high-intensity blended use.
4. Decentralisation 2.0
Decentralisation has been a theme because the Nineteen Nineties, and the DMP2025 makes it extra deliberate. As an alternative of simply creating satellite tv for pc hubs, the purpose is to equalise entry to jobs island-wide, by creating extra enterprise hubs throughout the nation.
- Jurong Lake District: Positioned as Singapore’s “Second CBD”, set to help over 100,000 jobs with workplace towers, residential enclaves, and a future built-in transport hub.
- Changi Metropolis: Linked to Terminal 5, which can serve 50 million passengers yearly. The imaginative and prescient: a worldwide air-logistics and innovation hub for aviation-adjacent companies.
- Johor-Singapore SEZ (Particular Financial Zone): Whereas technically cross-border, it’s anticipated to enhance northern Singapore cities like Woodlands and Sembawang with new financial and commuting alternatives.
5. Heritage and identification as core city infrastructure
One other departure from earlier plans is how heritage buildings and spots will now not be handled as simply as remoted conservation tasks, however as lively contributors to city life. Conservation is now anticipated to yield each social and financial returns.
Key websites earmarked for adaptive reuse embrace:
- Dakota Crescent: Preserved for its social heritage and distinctive low-rise housing mannequin.
- Jurong Hill Tower and Bukit Timah Turf Membership: To be repurposed as social and cultural landmarks, probably internet hosting neighborhood, F&B, and artistic business areas.
The emphasis shouldn’t be solely on preservation, however useful reuse. URA is how these buildings can turn into a part of on a regular basis life once more: as co-working hubs, artwork areas, cafés, or neighbourhood anchors.
6. Social integration as design precept
Lastly, DMP2025 displays a maturing of Singapore’s social coverage into city design. Somewhat than simply constructing inexpensive housing, the plan promotes neighbourhood-level inclusion. The DMP2025 goals to attain this via:
- Integrating rental housing and two-room flexi models even in high-demand cities like Queenstown
- Designing frequent areas (e.g., sky gardens, void decks, hawker centres) to facilitate intergenerational interplay
- Prioritising walkability and entry for seniors, households with youngsters, and folks with disabilities
DMP2025: What this implies for residents
DMP2025 provides a forward-looking blueprint for a extra inclusive, resilient, and habitable metropolis. It guarantees extra housing choices, shorter commutes, richer inexperienced infrastructure, and a stronger emphasis on heritage. We must wait and see how the plan impacts housing affordability in central areas, conservation trade-offs, and execution amid world financial uncertainty.
Nonetheless, the message is obvious! The DMP2025 at its core is about considerate, human-centric progress that embraces the town’s previous whereas making ready for its future. And similar to you, we couldn’t be extra excited for June twenty fifth, when the plan can be unveiled for the complete nation!
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