The URA Draft Master Plan 2013 seeks to build townships that are strong in community interaction.
As such, the new housing concepts at Marina South and Kampong Bugis are envisioned to be “non-gated”, featuring green housing developments that will encourage greater interaction between neighbours and the community, noted Mohamed Ismail, CEO of PropNex Realty.
Meanwhile, the subterranean Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) comprising a part undersea 10-lane road connecting the Kallang-Paya Lebar Expressway (KPE), Ayer Rajah Expressway (AYE) and East Coast Parkway (ECP) is set to open on 29 December. Once the MCE becomes operational, it will free up land for development in the new central business district.
“Once this stretch of the present ECP is decommissioned, more land parcels with a variety of different uses can be made available for development,” said Chia Siew Chuin, Director of Research & Advisory at Colliers International.
Aside from Grade A office buildings, the transformation will see high-rise city homes becoming a permanent feature of this modern financial district, where supporting amenities within walking or cycling distance include shops, offices, hotels, restaurants, arts and entertainment venues, and greens spaces – serving the office crowd by day and the resident population after-hours and on weekends.
Meanwhile, the vision for Kampong Bugis, which is located near Kallang Riverside, has been combined with the completion of the Sports Hub at Kallang to provide drivers needed to pioneer and sustain the development at Kallang Riverside.
Chia noted that the completion of the Sports Hub in 2014 will provide “the catalyst to introduce all manner of sporting and recreational events into the locality, bringing in much needed human activity”.
“Once such activities gain a consistent foothold in the area, the Government and private developers will be incentivised to initiate other projects at the Kallang Riverside as well as the neighbouring Kampong Bugis,” she added.
Image: Artist’s impression of Marina South district under the Draft Master Plan 2013. (Source: URA)
Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor at PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@propertyguru.com.sg
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