SINGAPORE — There are four possible options when a decision is taken on what to do with Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s former home, said Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance Indranee Rajah yesterday.

These are demolition, preservation, conservation and compulsory acquisition, she said in a third Facebook post, weighing in on a family feud that was made public by a joint statement by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s younger siblings two weeks ago.

In the post published around 9.30pm, Ms Indranee outlined the implications of each of the options.

Demolition, which is what Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang want, would mean the land is cleared of the house.

This is the only option out of the four that allows for possible redevelopment.

The owner of the freehold plot —currently Mr Lee Hsien Yang — can apply for re-zoning and/or increase the plot ratio, which would increase the land value “well beyond” the current estimated market value of S$24 million, and attract many developers.

Should a 20-storey luxury condominium be built on the site, for instance, with one unit per floor, allowing all owners to have the address of 38 Oxley Road, the development could be “marketed as a unique trophy address”, said Ms Indranee.

“Demolition is irreversible. Once demolished, there is no going back. Demolition removes once and for all any possibility of future preservation, conservation or compulsory acquisition of the property,” she added, noting that demolition of a building requires approval from the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the Building and Construction Authority.

A second option of designating the century-old house as a national monument under the Preservation of Monuments Act would bar redevelopment, or even any works to be done to it without permission from the National Heritage Board, the Minister said.

Under the Act, a residence that is preserved will be compulsorily acquired by the Government within one year of the preservation order, or the order would lapse.

Ms Indranee said a less restrictive third option is to conserve the building under the Planning Act, which would allow for works to be done to the building as long as these fall within the URA’s guidelines.

Similarly, the land cannot be redeveloped.

The last option is to compulsorily acquire the house under the Land Acquisition Act, said Ms Indranee.

Because the Government is acquiring the property in this scenario, there is “no possibility of redevelopment”, she added.

The owner of the house will get compensation at market rates at the time of acquisition, valued on the basis of it being a two-storey landed property.

Ms Indranee said the Government would have “several further options”.

She added: “It could, for example, choose to demolish the house and build a tasteful memorial or symbolic marker in a park setting.”

This was the third time Ms Indranee was commenting via Facebook on the ongoing dispute between PM Lee and his two younger siblings over their family home over the last three days.

In her first two posts, Ms Indranee challenged what she said was an assumption that the late founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, had contemplated demolition as the only eventual outcome to the house.