Over 18,000 BTO flats launched in Tengah so far

Tengah: About 1 to 4 applicants for each available flat

- Michelle Ng

More than half of the 30,000 public housing units in Tengah have been launched so far, as Singapore's newest town takes shape four years after the first flats there were offered in 2018.

Billed as a "forest town", the 700ha area in the west- roughly the same size as Bishan is the 24th Housing Board town and the first to be developed since Punggol two decades ago.

HDB has launched a total of 18,555 Build-To-Order (BTO) flats across 18 projects in Tengah, as at the recently concluded sales exercise in February.

Orange Tee & Tie senior vicepresident of research and analytics Christine Sun said interest in homes in Tengah has held steady throughout the last four years, as reflected in BTO application rates.

HDB data showed there was an average of 5,464 applicants per exercise in the four most recent BTO exercises from November 2021 to February 2023, compared with an average of 3,138 applicants per exercise in the previous four exercises.

"The trend indicates that people are becoming more receptive to living in Tengah, although it is the newest town and many amenities are still under construction," said Ms Sun.

When Tengah is completed, it is estimated that it will provide 42,000 new homes - 30,000 HDB flats and 12,000 private housing units.

The largely forested area is located between the existing towns of Jurong East, Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Batok, with the upcoming Jurong Lake District to its south and Tengah Air Base in the north, past the Kranji Expressway.

Tengah is now a buzzing hive of building activity, with semi-constructed HDB blocks set against swathes of greenery in the distance.

It will be a few more months before the first batch of residents move into their new homes.