It seems like only yesterday that we first heard news about Tengah being the new housing estate that the government was developing. Touted as Singapore’s “next Punggol”, the estate of Tengah is slated to be the next hottest development with over 30,000 new homes in the pipeline over the next few years. That announcement, believe it or not, was made in 2016!
Since then, construction and development has well and truly been underway. If you pay a visit to the estate today, you’ll find that what was once mostly barren land has been vastly transformed. So much so that the first batch of Tengah residents have already moved in at the start of this year, and the rest will continue to progressively do so over the next few years.
Let’s take a look at where Tengah is now, in terms of status, and what we can expect in the future.
Tengah—a recap
Bordering the likes of Choa Chu Kang, Bukit Batok, and Jurong, Tengah will be carved out from an existing plot of land that was formerly used for military training. In the URA’s Concept Plan 2001, Tengah was unveiled as the next residential housing town, making it the newest since Punggol in the 90s.
Source: HDB
Tengah will be divided into 5 unique districts – Plantation District, Garden District, Park District, Brickland District, and Forest Hill District. According to the HDB, forest and nature themes will feature strongly in the planning and design of the districts, as part of plans to weave nature into homes.
Low rise flats, and more spacious living
As we all know, public housing projects here in Singapore are understandably very densely populated and situated close to one another, due to the scarcity of land. If you live in a HDB, or even an EC for that matter, you’ll more or less be able to look directly into your neighbours’ units from your own home, just because of how closely HDB blocks are stacked next to each other.
Source: HDB
In the case of Tengah, residents will get somewhat of a reprieve, with slightly more spaced out HDB blocks interspersed with a medley of nature spaces such as community parks, gardens, and lush greenery.
We say somewhat, because ultimately the constraint on land space is a problem that is hard to circumvent, and so the urban planners will have to strike a balance between giving more space between HDB blocks, and efficiently utilising the limited land to allow as many residential blocks as possible.
HDB blocks in Tengah also won’t be very high: you can expect the tallest block to probably be up to 15 storeys. This is because of the proximity of Tengah Air Base, which places a height restriction on nearby buildings’ height. This is similar to other housing estates with an air base nearby, such as Canberra, Punggol, and Paya Lebar.
Tengah flats with a view
Source: HDB
One cool feature to look forward to in the new Tengah estate are the various community sky parks on the rooftops of HDB blocks, which isn’t very common in older HDB projects around Singapore. This is part of Tengah’s vision to be the first “forest town” in Singapore.
Residents will be able to access rooftop community green spaces—known as Sky Parks—which are located at the top of the neighbourhood centre and multi-storey car parks. According to the HDB, there will be habitat zones such as a bird sanctuary and a butterfly garden, as well as landscaped linkways connecting the sky parks to the blocks with sheltered seating areas and lookout points around the space.
Think of it as forest trails and nature walks, right at your doorstep and elevated high above to also include scenic views of the residential development skyline.
Source: HDB
Undoubtedly, this is a very intriguing feature that, if executed properly, will bring a lot of value to Tengah HDB flats. We’ve already seen how rooftop community spaces are a big hit with residents, such as in the case of The Pinnacle @ Dawson, and is certainly a clever use of a space that would have otherwise been under utilised.
Centralised Cooling System—theoretically great but has teething issues
As part of a series of initiatives aimed at making Tengah an eco-friendly estate, HDB blocks in the estate come with a new smart feature – the centralised cooling system (CCS).
Source: SP Group
Unlike traditional air conditioning systems which use refrigerants to produce cool air, the CCS instead uses chilled water that is piped to homes from centralised chillers installed on the rooftops to produce cold air.
Physically, this new system looks the same as any other flat in other estates. The cold water pipes run through corridors and into each unit via the front door, and CCS indoor units (from Daikin) have the same look and feel as conventional aircon units.
According to SP Group, who is managing this system, the CCS is more energy efficient, and will help households save up to 20% in upfront costs, and up to 17% in lifetime cycle costs.
The CCS is an opt-in initiative, and homebuyers can choose whether they want to go for the CCS or not after they apply for their BTOs. According to news reports back in October last year when the first batch of residents moved in, about 10,675 households signed up for the CCS, which is equivalent to about 9 in 10 households.
Unfortunately, while the overall concept seems like a good idea with good intentions, its delivery came up a little short.
Source: EdgeProp
When the first batch of Tengah residents moved in late last year, they faced several problems involving the CCS. For starters, a common issue that many households faced was that the units were apparently not cold enough, with some even blowing hot air. Some residents also complained about the cooling system’s awkward trunking and structural beam placement in the living room. And in some cases, residents experienced condensation or leaking from the cooling units in their homes.
As far as we know, the majority of these faults have been rectified by SP Group, and Tengah residents have a dedicated direct channel to SP Group for any fault rectifications. To be fair, such teething issues are bound to happen, especially for innovative solutions such as the CCS which is being implemented in residential developments for the first time.
As future batches of residents slowly move in over the next few years, it will be imperative for SP Group and HDB to troubleshoot what went wrong in the first batch of flats, and ensure that such problems don’t repeat themselves again for subsequent batches. Otherwise, we might see a scenario where the buy-in for the CCS will slide, making it not economically viable.
New MRT line serving the West
You should already be aware that starting in 2026, there will be a brand new MRT line plying through the Western region of Singapore. Yes, we’re talking about the Jurong Region Line (JRL)…and if you were curious, the line adopts a light blue hue 😉
Source: Railway Technology
Set to open in 3 phases from 2027-2029, the JRL will connect the many districts and landmarks in the Western side of Singapore, such as NTU, Choa Chu Kang, Jurong East, Boon Lay, and of course Tengah. Speaking of which, there will actually be 4 stations along the line that are part of the new Tengah town: Tengah (JS3), Tengah Plantation (JE1), Tengah Park (JE2), and Hong Kah (JS4).
Once completed, Tengah residents will be able to enjoy greater connectivity within the West side, along with accessibility to other parts of Singapore. Presently, there is only one MRT route in and out of places like Boon Lay, and this can be problematic as seen from the recent breakdown on the East-West Line.
With the JRL up, residents can have greater connectivity and commuting options, which will come in useful especially during times of a *touch wood* service disruption.
Source: Jurong Region Line Construction
Unlike the newest MRT lines (e.g. Thomson-East Coast Line and Downtown Line), the JRL will be an above-ground line, with tracks tracing through the estate. Work has already begun on the line, and the main infrastructure to lay out the tracks, viaduct and stations are in progress.
While some might be concerned about the noise generated from the trains, we have seen LTA’s solution of lining up noise barriers along the tracks in stretches that are especially close to residential areas, and this will likely be replicated in Tengah as well to help mitigate any noise issues.
What does Tengah look like today?
Image credit: Kezia Tan
According to news reports, 4,640 households or—67.1% of 6,911 booked units—have collected their keys across 6 completed precincts as of mid-June 2024. As you can tell, it is still pretty much “early days” for Tengah.
Since the first batch of residents, there have unfortunately been several teething issues that have cropped up. Apart from the CCS woes, other complaints have been about things like poor mobile reception, lack of public transport options, and a lack of amenities like supermarkets and F&B outlets.
Even though these gripes certainly have merit, they are unfortunately part of birthing pains that come with developing a totally brand new housing estate. Almost everything is literally being built from scratch, and so it will understandably take time for the town to take shape.
Image credit: Kezia Tan
In a statement, the HDB explained that these issues stem from “a trade-off between completing all construction works, including those on the rooftops and in the precinct, before keys handover, and handing over keys as soon as possible to buyers once their flats or blocks are ready”.
Image credit: Kezia Tan
It also said that keys were handed over immediately once the flats were ready, as construction had been delayed by the pandemic, and residents also said they wanted to get their keys as soon as possible to start their renovations. And so, there has to be some concession here for the HDB, because when you are the first movers in a new estate, you have to accommodate time for the rest of the infrastructure to catch up.
Tengah HDB town: a work in progress
The good news is that there have been several workaround measures that have been implemented to alleviate current residents’ woes. For instance, to address the mobile reception issues, temporary antennas have been installed to boost signals, and installation of transmission fibre cables and base stations are being expedited where possible. For public transport, new bus services and an interchange have been set up.
As subsequent batches of residents move in and construction moves along fastidiously, we can expect more and more enhancements to Tengah town over the next few years. Looking at the URA and HDB’s vision for Tengah, there is definitely a palpable sense of excitement as to how it will look 5 years from now. If Punggol is anything to go by, we can expect a bustling and lively estate in the future, with a very strong and unique character of being Singapore’s forest town.
In the meantime, current residents will have to bear with some inconveniences from time to time, which are all part of the unavoidable birthing pains of creating a brand new housing estate from what was once nothing but land and forestry. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day…and certainly neither will Tengah.
Read more of our other articles here:
- Tengah Garden Residences
- Is HDB BTO’s Optional Component Scheme (OCS) worth it?
- What a $29K 4-room HDB BTO Japandi reno looks like
Cover image adapted from: Kezia Tan
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