New towns of Singapore

The new town planning concept was introduced into Singapore with the building of the first New Town, Queenstown, from July 1952 to 1973 by the country's public housing authority, the Housing and Development Board. Today, the vast majority of the approximately 11,000 public housing buildings are organised into 22 new towns across the country.

Each new town is designed to be completely self-sustainable. Helmed by a hierarchy of commercial developments, ranging from a town centre to precinct-level outlets, there is no need to venture out of town to meet the most common needs of residences. Employment can be found in industrial estates located within several towns. Educational, health care, and recreational needs are also taken care of with the provision of schools, hospitals, parks, sports complexes, and so on.

Singapore's expertise in successful new town design was internationally recognised when the Building and Social Housing Foundation (BSHF) of the United Nations awarded the World Habitat Award to Tampines New Town, which was selected as a representative of Singapore's new towns, on 5 October 1992.^[1]

New Towns

Name	Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Area (Total)	Area (Residential)	Residential units	Residential units (Projected)	Population	Image	Remarks
Ang Mo Kio	宏茂桥	hóngmàoqiáo	638	283	48,068	58,000	151,700
Bedok	勿洛	wùluò	937	408	59,201	74,000	201,300
Bishan	碧山	bìshān	690	172	19,367	32,000	67,400
Bukit Batok	武吉巴督	wǔjíbādū	785	291	31,731	47,000	112,100
Bukit Merah	武吉巴督	wǔjíbādū	858	312	50,247	68,000	147,000
Bukit Panjang	武吉班让	wǔjíbānràng	489	228	29,498	43,000	113,000
Choa Chu Kang	蔡厝港	càicuògǎng	583	307	39,511	62,000	155,800
Clementi	金文泰	jīnwéntài	408	198	23,871	35,000	74,500
Geylang	金文泰	jīnwéntài	678	214	30,510	49,000	96,900
Hougang	后港	hòugǎng	1,276	354	47,819	68,000	173,500		Largest new town in terms of total land area.
Jurong East	裕廊东	yùlángdōng	384	165	22,299	29,000	81,000
Jurong West	裕廊西	yùlángxī	987	480	68,760	92,000	251,200		Largest new town in terms of existing residential units.
Kallang/Whampoa	巴西立	bāxīlì	799	200	34,288	54,000	104,900
Pasir Ris	巴西立	bāxīlì	601	318	27,514	44,000	109,700
Punggol	榜鵝	bǎng'é	957	422	17,980	96,000	59,200
Queenstown	女皇镇	nǚhuángzhèn	687	210	29,812	60,000	85,000		First new town in Singapore.
Sembawang	三巴旺	sānbāwàng	708	317	18,421	60,000	67,400
Sengkang	盛港	shènggǎng	1,055	397	43,848	90,000	156,200
Serangoon	实龙岗	shílónggāng	737	156	21,292	29,000	75,800
Tampines	淡滨尼	dànbīnní	1,200	500	62,369	83,000	235,800
Toa Payoh	大巴窑	dàbāyáo	463	210	35,418	48,000	105,400		Second new town in Singapore.
Woodlands	兀兰	wùlán	1,198	525	58,525	88,000	229,500
Yishun	义顺	yìshùn	810	439	46,965	84,000	173,300
Other Estates (Bukit Timah, Central Area, Marine Parade)				126	22,898	25,000	66,500
Total					890,212	1,418,000	3,094,100

References

1. ^ Building Social Housing Foundation, Tampines Town, accessed 19 Mar 2007.

• HDB Annual Report 2006/07
• HDB Statistics 2009/10