SINGAPORE – Almost all the households in Tanglin Halt – one of Singapore’s oldest housing estates – that opted for replacement homes in Dawson have collected keys to their flats.
Tanglin Halt estate was identified for the Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) in 2014, and residents were offered two- to five-room units in five replacement sites in Dawson estate, which is also in Queenstown.
About 74 per cent, or 2,577, of the 3,480 households have booked replacement flats in Dawson as at April 30, the Housing Board said on Saturday (May 28).
Some 2,500 households have collected the keys, with the initial batch of residents getting theirs for homes in SkyParc @ Dawson, Dawson Vista and Forfar Heights from December 2019.
The relocation is the biggest Sers exercise to date, with a total of 31 Tanglin Halt blocks coming under the scheme. This involved 3,480 flats, and about 200 market and hawker stalls, shops and eating houses from two markets and food centres and seven commercial blocks.
Former and departing residents and tenants of the estate came together at an event to bid goodbye to Tanglin Halt on Saturday, with performances and activities to celebrate the memories made over the district’s 50-year history.
About 17 per cent of the households that selected a flat in Dawson opted for a unit under the Joint Selection Scheme.
This scheme allows residents to select replacement flats together with their neighbours should they wish to continue living near one another. Up to six households can request to jointly select their flats, with selection appointments scheduled one after another so that they have a better chance of getting a unit as near to one another as possible.
Built in 1962, Tanglin Halt is one of the first five estates of Queenstown – Singapore’s first satellite town.
Government agencies are studying ways to capture the history and heritage of the area, such as the reuse or retention of key heritage elements. This includes the possible integration of elements from old Tanglin Halt into the communal spaces of the redeveloped estate through street furniture and murals.
