Are you looking investing out of Singapore for a change? Tokyo 2020 is only a couple of years away but Japan is transforming into a hotspot for both real estate investment and capital inflows. Join us for our Japan Property Gallery on 17/18 March 2018 held at Hyatt Hotel from 1- 5 pm.
Hit by falling student enrolments, 11 schools have merged with others in the last two years and eight of those former school compounds now stand empty. Three others are being used as temporary premises for schools that are undergoing renovation.
Three former schools are being used by others: The former Chestnut Drive Secondary building is now Fajar Secondary until the end of this year; the former First Toa Payoh Secondary building is Pei Chun Public School till the end of next year and the former Clementi Woods Secondary building will be Nan Hua Primary for two years from next year. All three schools were merged with others last year. If MOE has no plans for a site, it will be returned to the state and put to other uses.
• Bedok Town Secondary
• Clementi Woods Secondary (Holding site for Nan Hua Primary School, 2018 till end 2019)
• First Toa Payoh Secondary (Holding site for Pei Chun Public School, till end 2018)
• Chestnut Drive Secondary (Holding site for Fajar Secondary, till end 2017)
VACATED IN 2017
• Balestier Hill Secondary
• Henderson Secondary
• Siglap Secondary
• MacPherson Secondary
• North View Secondary
• Pioneer Secondary
• Si Ling Secondary
TO BE VACATED IN 2018
• Bedok North Secondary
• Bishan Park Secondary
• Chong Boon Secondary
• Greenview Secondary
Some sites of former schools have been used for other purposes. For example, the Academy of Singapore Teachers, launched in 2010, is housed in the former St Andrew’s Junior College building in Malan Road. The former CHIJ (Opera Estate) Primary School site in Jalan Khairuddin has been occupied by the Singapore Red Cross since 1991.
There are at least nine other former school sites managed by the Singapore Land Authority that are vacant state properties. They can be rented on a short-term basis for up to 90 days
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An interesting video to bring you what Katong is like in a visual effect via a one-minute-plus video. Brought to you by 4 pretty Japanese ladies. Welcome to Singapore and Katong!
An illustrated and animated view of the new URA Masterplan 2014.
In today Business Times (11 June), it was reported that even as the government adopted a cautious approach to private housing in the latest land sales programme for H2 2014 to account for the twin factors of oversupply and weaker demand, the new sites rolled out yesterday stirred excitement in the market,
The new sites were rolled out under both confirmed and reserve lists in the residential and commercial property sectors.
In particular, the strategy to accelerate the development of various growth areas as identified in the latest land-use master plan is made clear in the latest slate. For instance, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) will launch the tender for a much-awaited commercial and residential development site in Holland Village in December. “The sale of the site will further enhance the existing urban village character of the area,” said the Ministry of National Development (MND). The 2.31-hectare site is estimated to yield about 580 private residences in addition to 13,500 sq m GFA of commercial space. It is being placed on the H2 confirmed list as part of the Holland Village Extension plan unveiled in Master Plan 2014. It will provide new housing options within a mixed-use development that is well connected via pedestrian linkages to surrounding transport nodes and public spaces. An existing car park that will be part of the sale site will be shut by the first half of next year to facilitate development of the sale site. Future development on the site will provide parking lots to meet the demand in the area. In the meantime, an interim car park will be built to replace the public parking lots affected.
In addition, URA has enlarged a commercial site next to Paya Lebar MRT Station and moved it up from the reserve list to the confirmed list, reflecting its commitment to drive the growth of Paya Lebar as a regional commercial hub. Elaborating on the enlarged 3.98-hectare commercial site in Paya Lebar, MND said yesterday that the site comprises a plot that was on the H1 reserve list and another plot immediately south of Paya Lebar East-West Line MRT Station.
The two plots of land will be connected via a subterranean space under Sims Avenue. The sale of the larger land parcel provides greater flexibility for building design, layout and placement of uses. It will also facilitate the development of Paya Lebar Central into a commercial node, which is in line with the government’s objective of decentralising employment centres and bringing jobs closer to homes.
The earlier plot has a drain running diagonally across it, severely constraining any potential design scheme. While the additional plot to its north also has a drain running through it, the drain divides the plot into two more regular-shaped rectangular plots, which would allow a developer to put a tower on each half. Market watchers reckon that besides a minimum office component, the enlarged sale site is likely to have retail and residential elements, and possibly hotel uses too. The enlarged Paya Lebar site can generate about 167,160 square metres (nearly 1.8 million sq ft) gross floor area (GFA), compared with 86,940 sq m for the old plot. This will limit participation at its tender to big players, say market watchers.
With the focus on decentralisation, two sites for office developments in the city – a commercial site on Beach Road and a “white” site in Marina View – will take a “back seat on the reserve list. The 2.14-ha Beach Road plot, a new site that includes the former Central Police Station grounds, can generate 89,880 sq m GFA of commercial space. Meanwihile the Marina View plot, which can produce about 101,400 sq m GFA, has been on the reserve list for more than two years, though MND yesterday announced a new sale condition: banning strata subdivision of office space for the future project on the site. This is in line with the vision for quality office developments within Marina Bay, Singapore’s key financial and business district.
Full announcement by URA can be found here:
http://www.ura.gov.sg/uol/media-room/news/2014/jun/pr14-34.aspx
Dunman High School (DHS) (formerly known as Dunman Government Chinese Middle School) is an autonomous co-educational secondary school in Singapore offering the Integrated Programme. It has always been the top co-educational secondary school in Singapore in terms of academic results.
In 2009 the school moved back to the Kallang campus, which has been expanded to seven hectares, making it one of the largest government schools in Singapore in physical area.
Its Chinese name Démíng (德明) is a transliteration of “Dunman”. The meaning of its name in Chinese is derived from a line in the Book of Rites (大学之道，在明明德) which is a statement that has influenced the Emperors of the Han, Tang and Song dynasties in Imperial China. It can be roughly translated as “the Dao (path) to the greatest learning lies in understanding the brightest virtues”.
On 14 October 1956, in the midst of the Chinese middle schools riots, the Ministry of Education established the predecessor of Dunman High School, Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School, along with other schools like River Valley High School.
In the 1956 riots, Chinese middle-school students who subscribed to the communist ideology staged sit-ins and demonstrations, disrupted classes, and in effect shut their schools down. The function of the newly established Kallang West Government Chinese Middle School was to allow students who had no wish to be embroiled in communism to have a place to study.The premises of a newly built primary school at Mountbatten Road were loaned, and the initial enrolment included about 100 boys from The Chinese High School,with 10 teachers. In December 1957 the school moved to Dunman Road and was renamed Dunman Government Chinese Middle School.
In 1979, the school was selected to be one of the nine Special Assistance Plan (SAP) secondary schools. The school was renamed “Dunman High School” and began to offer both English and Chinese languages at the first-language level. When the Music Elective Programme (MEP) was introduced by the MOE in 1982, DHS was selected to implement the programme for musically gifted students.
In 1990, the school expanded its physical area by taking over the neighbouring former premises of Dunman Secondary School at Dunman Road. It then became a single-session school (previously the school was divided into the “morning session” and “afternoon session” so that two classes of students could share a classroom). It was one of six schools to go autonomous in 1994. The school moved to its current location in Tanjong Rhu on 27 May 1995. It was made the 7th Gifted Education Programme centre in Singapore in 1997.
