Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke during his National Day Rally last night (21 August) and touched on the subject of redeveloping Paya Lebar, with the Paya Lebar Airbase moving out.
He said that the MND estimates that about 150,000 new homes can be built in the new Paya Lebar Town, which is about the size of Punggol plus Sengkang today.
Snippet of PM Lee’s speech
I have told you before that Paya Lebar Airbase would move out, and that we would redevelop Paya Lebar. The relocation will start in the 2030s, but URA is already engaging the public and industry partners to explore redevelopment concepts.
Let me share some of the ideas. This is Paya Lebar Airbase. The runway is a dominant feature. It stretches from one end to the other, 3.8 km long.
It is aligned along the direction of prevailing winds, for aircraft to avoid crosswinds when aircrafts take off and land.
The future town can be oriented this way too, parallel to the runway and then the town naturally breezy. Hopefully, residents will not need to turn on their air conditioning quite as much.
We can repurpose the runway into the town’s central spine, turn it into a green connector or community space extending from one end of town to the other. It will be a distinctive and attractive heritage feature, unique to Paya Lebar.
On both sides of the spine, we will build public and private housing. MND estimates we can build around 150,000 new homes, which is roughly what we have in Punggol plus Sengkang today.
There will be amenities and recreational areas close by, as well as commercial and industrial developments, to bring jobs closer to our homes.
It is not just about using the land physically occupied by the airbase. Once the airbase moves out, we can also lift some of the building height restrictions around it, e.g., in Hougang, Marine Parade or Punggol.
This means we can redevelop these towns, include more amenities, and make much better use of the space there.
It will not happen overnight. But over decades, we can completely reimagine the Eastern part of Singapore.
Singaporeans sometimes worry that we will run out of space in future. That housing will not be available or affordable.
I say: No need to worry. We have done our studies and planning. We will have enough space for future generations.
Our problem is not finding the space to build enough flats, nor keeping home affordable for Singaporeans. We know how to do that.
Our problem is having enough babies to grow up and live in them! And I do not know how to do that but we will come back to that subject in a future rally.
Our island may be small, but it holds great potential. Paya Lebar is just one example of how we are reimagining and transforming Singapore.
We are doing this all across the island – Jurong Lake District, Greater Southern Waterfront, and many other areas too.
Each new estate will be more liveable, greener, and more sustainable than the previous one. This is not easy to do, but just as past generations planned for and created the Singapore that we live in today, we too, must never stop imagining and building the future Singapore for the next generation and beyond.