SINGAPORE – About 7,000 Housing Board flats will be built in Bayshore as an extension of Bedok town, with the first two Build-To-Order (BTO) projects to be launched for sale in the second half of 2024.

These units with waterfront and city views are part of the 10,000 homes that will be built on the 60ha site, which sits on reclaimed land bounded by Upper East Coast Road and East Coast Parkway.

The remaining 3,000 units will be private housing.

The first two BTO projects will comprise about 1,400 two-room flexi, three- and four-room flats, HDB said on Monday.

The flats will have full-height windows for residents to take in waterfront views for units overlooking East Coast Park, or city views for those facing Bedok town.

HDB said the BTO projects could fall under the Plus category in the impending reclassification of flats, given their attractive location, and proximity to transport nodes and amenities. From the second half of 2024, BTO flats in choicer locations under the Prime and Plus categories will come with stricter resale conditions, including a 10-year minimum occupation period.

National Development Minister Desmond Lee said these Bayshore flats will be the first public housing projects built in East Coast since the construction of HDB flats in Marine Parade. “We will offer a range of housing typologies, including rental flats, to promote more inclusive neighbourhoods,” he said at the HDB Awards dinner at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

Bayshore has been earmarked for residential development since 1998, and this will be another milestone in the rejuvenation of Bedok, he added.

The Bayshore estate is expected to be fully developed by the mid-2030s. Structural beams and columns in the flats will be kept to the edges for a “beamless” look to allow home owners the flexibility to customise the units’ layouts according to their needs.

Most homes in Bayshore will be within a five-minute walk of the upcoming Bayshore and Bedok South MRT stations on the Thomson-East Coast Line, added HDB. The Bayshore stop is set to be completed by 2024 and the Bedok South station by 2025.

A car-lite estate, Bayshore will have cycling and walking paths that will be connected to the Round Island Route, a continuous 150km park connector, and an upcoming 15km green corridor connecting East Coast Park and Changi Beach.

The other HDB estates zoned as car-lite are Ulu Pandan, Mount Pleasant, Tengah and the Greater Southern Waterfront.

At the centre of Bayshore will be a new street called Bayshore Drive. It will be lined with shops, eateries, supermarkets, health and medical facilities, sports and recreational facilities, and resting spots.

A 400m “transit priority corridor” on this street will have bus-only lanes, with footpaths, cycling paths and wider sheltered pavements on both sides. Bayshore will have green spaces throughout, including a new 3ha central park stretching from the north to the south of the estate with open lawns where families can picnic or take walks, HDB said.

A new linear park on the edge of Bayshore will retain heritage elements, such as seawalls that mark the coastline before the land was reclaimed. Playgrounds will also have a rustic theme, and the estate will have various walking trails.

On the eastern side of the estate, an integrated development will be connected to a bus interchange and Bedok South MRT station. It will have residential units, and retail and dining shops, HDB said, but it did not specify if it would be a public or private development.

HDB said sustainable design strategies would guide the development of Bayshore, which will come with smart infrastructure.

For instance, in the first two BTO projects, solar panels will be installed on the roofs and the blocks will use a pneumatic waste conveyance system, a vacuum-like suction to transport household waste via underground pipes to a centralised bin centre.

Plans are also afoot for Bayshore to house health and medical facilities and a new educational institution. Temasek Secondary School will remain in the estate.

About 31ha of forested areas will be cleared to make way for the Bayshore estate.

An environmental impact assessment report HDB published in November 2022 said that the areas to be cleared were of “minor to moderate” conservation value. Still, the report noted that these areas were among the last substantial forest fragments in eastern Singapore, and construction in the area would have irreversible impact, especially due to the loss of habitats for plant and bird species.

HDB told ST it would work with the National Parks Board to identify plants of conservation value and assess how to best manage them, such as by transplanting or harvesting their saplings for propagation, where possible.

Meanwhile, Mr Lee said that from January to September, HDB issued almost 18,000 sets of keys to flat buyers. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has handed over nearly 60,000 keys to owners. The pipeline of new BTO projects will continue increasing, he said.

There are now about 80,000 BTO flats under construction in almost 100 projects islandwide. Mr Lee said this would rise to 110,000 flats across 150 projects in 2025.

At the yearly HDB Awards ceremony on Monday, 26 design, construction and engineering awards were given to architectural and engineering consultants and building contractors.