Resort-style villas for staycations among new facilities at Safra Jurong in early 2028

SINGAPORE - Come 2028, residents in the west can enjoy staycations in Safra’s three-storey villas, chill at a poolside cafe, and have a fun day out with their children at an upgraded indoor playground.

These new facilities will be ready by early 2028, after a 1½-year upgrading of the 16-year-old Safra Jurong clubhouse is completed.

Parts of the club will remain open to national servicemen and their families during the upgrading works, which will take place in phases from late 2026.

Announcing these plans on Oct 19 at Safra Jurong’s Be@Safra Open House event, Minister of State for Defence Desmond Choo said Safra Jurong will be developed as an “urban oasis”.

Among the new facilities are three-storey villas, two-storey duplexes and one-storey studios for staycations – the first Safra clubhouse to offer such accommodation. These will take over the space of the existing tennis courts and barbecue pits.

There will also be more eateries, a new futsal court, upgraded swimming pools with new water play features, smart training equipment at the EnergyOne gym, and new thematic play features at the Kidz Amaze indoor playground.

Mr Choo, who is also Safra president, added that there will also be new programmes to better serve younger national servicemen and their families living nearby. Safra has conducted surveys and focus group discussions to gather feedback from these groups, and these will continue in the following months before upgrading works commence.

Mr Choo also said that for longer-term developments, some short-term disruptions are expected. Safra will try to minimise the duration that facilities like the gym and the indoor playground will be closed for upgrading.

Residents living in the Jurong area welcomed the announcements, and particularly looked forward to the new chalets, given the lack of such offerings in the west.

Finance broker Eshwar V. Velautham, 27, visits Safra Jurong at least once a week to swim and for dining. He looks forward to booking the chalets for gatherings with his family members and friends.

Delivery rider Afiq Nasrullah, 23, visits the Jurong clubhouse once a week to use the futsal court and for meals. Besides the new chalets, he is also looking forward to the new futsal court as he described the existing court as “relatively run down”.

If some facilities are closed during upgrading, both Mr Eshwar and Mr Afiq intend to visit other Safra clubhouses or nearby neighbourhood parks to use the facilities.

There are six other Safra clubhouses. The two newest ones, in Choa Chu Kang and Punggol, opened their doors in the past decade.

Of the remaining four, the Mount Faber and Tampines clubhouses were upgraded in 2019, while the one in Yishun was upgraded in 2020. The last is Safra Toa Payoh, which opened in 1975 and was redeveloped in 2013.

Responding to a question from The Straits Times, Mr Choo said Safra clubhouses have a fixed upgrading schedule, and that Safra regularly collects feedback to help it understand how to provide better facilities and services.

Besides these standalone clubhouses, Safra also has facilities in Carpenter Street and a cafe lounge at the newly opened

Central Manpower Base

.

The Be@Safra Open House is being held at various Safra clubs on weekends from Oct 18 to Nov 30.

Commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), the open house offers NS-themed activities such as camouflage face-painting and SAF uniform try-outs for kids. It also features a flight simulator from the Republic of Singapore Air Force, shooting games and a giant Total Defence-themed board game.

A two-month-long charity swim also concluded on Oct 18 at Safra Jurong during the open house. More than 5,500 national servicemen and their families have swum distances between 1km and 55km since Aug 11, with some going beyond this.

The $290,000 raised through the Safra Swim for Hope event will be donated to seven organisations. They are the Asian Women’s Welfare Association, Blossom Seeds, the President’s Challenge, the SAF Care Fund, Singapore Aquatics Development Fund, Singapore Cancer Society, and the South Central Community Family Service Centre.