Shorter-Wait BTO Flats Being Built in Sin Ming and Toa Payoh, Slated for Completion by Mid-2030

In Sin Ming Street, which is part of Bishan town, a 1,076-unit project that will include a childcare centre and a supermarket is currently being constructed across the road from Sin Ming Residences, a public housing project that is nearing completion with 984 units.

In Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, work has started on a 40-storey HDB block comprising 193 units that will be accompanied by a multi-storey carpark with a roof garden, a precinct pavilion and other community facilities.

The Housing Board said the flats’ launch dates and estimated waiting times will be announced at a later date. Flats with shorter waiting times have waits of under three years, with construction work typically starting before these flats are launched for sale so buyers can move into their homes sooner.

HDB said it has been ramping up flat supply to meet higher demand, and noted that both the Sin Ming and Toa Payoh project sites are brownfield, meaning they have previously been developed.

“In staging these housing developments, HDB has been progressively redeveloping vacant or suitable brownfield sites for housing in the first instance, before considering other sites that are zoned for housing,” said the board.

The Sin Ming site was formerly occupied by an HDB rental block and several industrial buildings that have since been demolished. The project in Lorong 4 Toa Payoh will occupy the site of an open-air carpark that sat between Blocks 62B and 66 Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, and Block 63 Lorong 5 Toa Payoh.

Asked why it had decided to develop homes at the Lorong 4 Toa Payoh site considering its relatively small area of about 0.78ha and its proximity to existing homes, HDB said: “Given our limited land, we must redevelop where we can to optimise our land use.” The board noted that Toa Payoh has been built up progressively over the years and has limited land for new development, and that redeveloping suitable brownfield sites such as the former carpark enables it to provide more housing options in the town, including for those who wish to live near their families.

Wong Siew Ying, head of research and content at PropNex, noted that five BTO projects launched in Bishan since August 2020, including Sin Ming Residences, were oversubscribed with at least three applicants vying for each flat.

Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore, added that resale flats in the town have also been highly sought after, with buyers willing to pay premium prices. Lim said about a quarter of the 376 flats sold in Bishan in 2025 changed hands at at least S$1 million, while 46 of the 230 flats sold on the resale market in the first seven months of 2026 crossed the same threshold.

Given that the number of HDB flats in Bishan has grown by about 11 per cent between 1996 and 2025, compared with 67 per cent nationally, Wong said it is not a surprise that more flats are being added to the town. “Having a larger resident catchment and greater vibrancy also line up with the Government’s proposed plans to redevelop Bishan town centre into a business and lifestyle hub under the Master Plan 2025,” she said.

Wong said the new Sin Ming flats could fall in the Plus category owing to their city-fringe location. She noted that, like Kebun Baru Breeze, a recently launched Plus project in Ang Mo Kio, the Sin Ming site is not at the doorstep of any MRT station, and is some distance from the town centre.

Plus and Prime flats are typically closer to the city centre, transport nodes and amenities. Owners of such flats must return additional subsidies to HDB when they sell their flats on the resale market for the first time.

Lim, meanwhile, said the site’s distance from an MRT station and its location in the quieter part of Bishan could push it into the Standard category.

For Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, both analysts said the development will likely be classified Prime or Plus if launched as a BTO project, owing to the site’s proximity to the town centre and an MRT station.

Going by strong demand for two-room and four-room units, Wong said it is likely that these flat types will form the bulk of the supply in the Sin Ming project, with three-room units, if offered, in the minority.

She noted that demand for the three-room flat type at Sin Ming Residences was muted, with 177 applications for 105 units, compared with 2,293 applications for 627 four-room flats. The remaining 252 flats in that project are rental units.

For Lorong 4 Toa Payoh, both analysts expect a mix of two-room and four-room flats. Wong said the project’s 193 units could make it the smallest BTO project in Toa Payoh since March 2012, when 188 units at the studio apartment block Golden Clover were put on sale. She said redeveloping the open-air carpark site is an opportunity for HDB to offer what are likely to be well sought-after units located close to the MRT station, with few undeveloped larger sites available in the town centre.