SINGAPORE – Building housing at the Singapore Turf Club site in Kranji will support the development of Woodlands Regional Centre as Singapore’s largest northern economic hub, said property analysts on Monday.

The Government had announced that the site now occupied by the club will be returned to the state by March 2027, and be developed for housing – including public flats – and other uses such as leisure and recreation.

PropNex Realty chief executive Ismail Gafoor said housing developments on the site of around 120ha will enlarge the population catchment for commercial developments in the area, and provide more workers for businesses and industries in areas such as Lim Chu Kang and Senoko.

At a press conference on Monday, Second Minister for National Development and Finance Indranee Rajah said the site’s redevelopment is “in line with a broader plan to develop the northern region”.

Citing greenery in nearby areas such as Mandai and Sungei Buloh, she said planners will “plan in the context of the place”.

“As we develop the northern area, we want it to have a unique identity, a unique appeal and defining characteristics of its own,” she said.

Diagonally across the turf club’s site will be the Agri-Food Innovation Park, part of previously announced plans to rejuvenate the Sungei Kadut industrial estate, as well as introduce new spaces for business, industry, and research and development in the Woodlands area.

Farther away, the Lim Chu Kang area will be redeveloped into a high-tech agri-food cluster.

Mr Gafoor and other analysts noted that the turf club site – located next to Kranji MRT station on the North-South Line – is currently lacking in amenities, which are necessary to make the area suitable for homes.

The Government must provide retail, food and beverage, and childcare options, he said, while Dr Lee Nai Jia, PropertyGuru Group’s head of real estate intelligence, data and software solutions, said schools would also be needed to provide for young families moving into the area.

At 124ha, the area freed by the club’s closure is larger than newer developments such as the 93ha Bidadari estate, which was previously reported to comprise about 11,000 homes, but much smaller than the 700ha Tengah town, which will yield about 42,000 homes.

Huttons Asia senior director of research Lee Sze Teck noted that much of the land to the north of the racecourse site is zoned for industrial use.

Planners will likely want to insert a buffer between these industrial sites and future homes, and non-residential buildings could be used for this purpose, he said.

On developing an identity for the precinct, Mr Lee suggested that planners look to the turf club’s history in drawing up plans, and take inspiration from the nearby Kranji War Memorial.

Mr Tan See Nin, the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s senior director for physical planning, said at the press conference that master planning for the site has only just begun, and will take another two to three years.

He said the authorities will carry out a stock-take of the structures, buildings and vegetation on site, which will inform development plans.

“We won’t rule out the possibility of keeping some structures if it makes sense to keep them or repurpose them for other uses,” Mr Tan added.

As for the location of future homes, ERA Realty key executive officer Eugene Lim said these could be inserted in the western and eastern areas of the site, as an extension of existing housing types nearby.

For instance, plots for low-rise condominiums or landed homes could be inserted in the western area, said Mr Lim, referencing existing freehold landed properties near the area.

Flats could be built on the eastern end of the site, he said, highlighting a cluster of Housing Board flats in Woodlands Street 41 that is separated from the site of the racecourse by the Bukit Timah Expressway.

The authorities had also said on Monday that leisure and recreational uses are being studied for the site.

PropertyGuru’s Dr Lee said that with Mandai Wildlife Reserve still undergoing expansion – a new rainforest-themed park and a resort are in the works – hotels could be added to the turf club site to cater to visitors to the zoo and other parks.