SINGAPORE — Following news that the Singapore Turf Club will close down by 2027, property analysts and urban planners said that the site’s redevelopment by the Government will see a mix of opportunities and challenges.

This is due to the area's proximity to the Kranji industrial area, Mandai and Woodlands.

Being close to the Kranji industrial area, for instance, means that work would need to be done to shield residential homes from industrial land and create a buffer against possible pollution. 

The proximity to the Central Catchment Area and Mandai — which lie on the east of the Singapore Turf Club — would provide opportunities to incorporate recreational uses for the public when the club’s site is redeveloped.

The Singapore Turf Club, which spans about 120 hectares — or the size of around 200 football fields — may also accommodate 20,000 to 40,000 new homes, the analysts said. 

The new homes and amenities could help to rejuvenate the nearby Woodlands town, they added.

On Monday (June 5), the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of National Development announced that the site will be used for public housing, while other potential uses are also being studied, such as for leisure and recreation.

It will be redeveloped to allow the land to be “holistically master-planned” to “better meet” future land use needs, they said. 

This is in addition to other major plans for Singapore’s northern region, including the redevelopment of Woodlands Checkpoint, enhancing Woodlands Town under the Remaking Our Heartland programme, and master-planning Lim Chu Kang into a high-tech agri-food cluster.

'REZONING OF KRANJI AND SUNGEI KADUT'

One property analyst said that the closure and redevelopment of the club’s site is just a part of the larger redevelopment and rezoning of the entire Kranji and Sungei Kadut area.

Mr Nicholas Mak, chief research officer of property portal Mogul.sg, said that most of the land in the Kranji and Sungei Kadut area are either zoned for general industrial use or future detailed development, meaning that the exact land use has not been assigned yet.

A small amount of land is zoned for residential use.

Singapore Turf Club occupies about 10 per cent or less of the total land area of Kranji and Sungei Kadut.

He added that some of the industrial land in Sungei Kadut is near to the Kranji Reservoir. 

If this land could be rezoned for residential and associated uses such as for schools, these future housing units will be highly valued compared to other residential properties in the vicinity since the residents would be able to enjoy water views, he said. 

"Similarly, some of the land zoned for future detailed development are near the Straits of Johor. If they are developed into residential properties, the residents could enjoy sea views, which would enhance the value of the properties."

Mr Lee Sze Teck, senior director of research at real estate company Huttons Group, said that some work may need to be done to shield future homes from such industrial land.

“But this can be easily overcome with the placement of non-residential buildings to create the necessary buffer,” he added. 

An urban planner said that the Central Catchment Area and Mandai nearby may open up opportunities to incorporate recreational and ecological elements in the site’s redevelopment.

Mr Li Yu Zhou, the director at Morrow Architects & Planners, also noted that to the west of Singapore Turf Club is the Northern Agri-Tech and Food Corridor, as well as the planned agricultural technology innovation hub in Sungei Kadut. 

Mr Li, who is also a council member of the Singapore Institute of Planners, said that this redevelopment could create new space for residential development and respective amenities that will cater to the workforce and families in relation to the agri-tech industry growth.

However, he said that one of the main hurdles in redeveloping this area would be ensuring that the ecological environment is preserved and possibly further enhanced. 

During a press conference on Monday (June 6), Mr Tan See Nin, senior director for physical planning at the Urban Redevelopment Authority, said that the authority will take into account the surrounding area when doing up a master plan for the area.

He said that the northern region as a whole is very "green", with areas such as Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve and the Kranji Marshes. 

"So I reckon that as we develop the master plan, we will take into account this surrounding context and see to what extent we can have an element of greenery within the site preserved for instance." 

MORE HOUSING, 'WOODLANDS EXPANSION'

The analysts said that the Singapore Turf Club site may also see the building of another 20,000 to 40,000 homes, depending on the plot ratio.

As a comparison, Bishan town has around 20,000 Housing and Development Board flats as of end-March in 2018, data from the public housing agency's website showed. 

The club’s site alone may be too small to be a township and may likely be an extension of Woodlands if it is used for housing, Mr Lee from Huttons Group said. 

Right now, the smallest township in Singapore is Jurong East at 384 hectares. 

Mr Lee added that the building of new homes at the club’s site could potentially make Woodlands the largest township in Singapore, as he sees the redevelopment as an extension of Woodlands.

A catalyst is “much needed” to propel Woodlands forward as a regional centre, Mr Lee suggested.

“The closure of Singapore Turf Club will give planners the room to rethink how to position Woodlands.”

He also said that there may be leisure options such as a theme park or sporting facilities in the area since Singapore Sports School is located in Woodlands.

Dr Lee Nai Jia, head of real estate intelligence, data and software solutions at PropertyGuru Group, suggested that a potential catalyst could be the Johor Bahru-Singapore Rapid Transit System (RTS) Link.

This is a bridge to be built across the Straits of Johor by end-2026 linking Woodlands in Singapore to Johor Bahru, Malaysia.

“The (Singapore Turf Club) area is considered far from most current major employment clusters and it will take some time for people to change their perception,” Dr Lee said. 

She added that there is definitely some "redevelopment potential" for retail and hotels when the zoo is fully redeveloped under the Mandai rejuvenation project.

"Separately, there may be new needs for land for food laboratories and high-tech farming," Dr Lee added.

On whether there is scope for a new MRT station or MRT line to be set up in the Singapore Turf Club site, Mr Li from Morrow Architects & Planners said that an expansion of the train network might not be necessary at this stage.

This is because there needs to be enough ridership and population to support the viability of new stations and networks, which the area does not have yet. 

“One alternative is to incorporate a comprehensive bus system within this area to supplement the expected gap not provided by the MRT system for this area,” he said. 

Agreeing, Mr Mak of Mogul.sg said that the authorities may need to expand the public transportation system if the population there “increases significantly in about 10 to 20 years from now” after the Government develops all the land in the Kranji and Sugei Kadut area. 

“But the authorities are already building the Thomson-East-Coast Line, which was announced a few years ago. The Kranji station is only two stations from the Woodlands MRT interchange. Hence, the redevelopment of the Kranji and Sungei Kadut area may have been planned several years ago," he added. ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY NAVENE ELANGOVAN