An expanding non-mature estate, today’s Sengkang is sub-divided into 4 neighborhoods – Rivervale, Compassvale, Anchorvale and Fernvale – with a resident population of 240,640 as of June 2018.
In Sengkang, as a new town popular with newlyweds and young families, Sengkang is often mistaken as a town lacking many public amenities.
Healthcare and medical facilities are also well-equipped in Sengkang. The newly completed Sengkang General and Community Hospitals are right opposite OLA EC. From there, Sengkang Polyclinic is diagonally opposite, sharing the same building with Sengkang Community Club and Sengkang Neighbourhood Police Centre. A plan is also in place to build another medical facility behind this project, next to Bellewaters EC.
For residents looking to chill out indoors, Compass One and The Seletar Mall are 1 and 4 stations away from Cheng Lim LRT. The bigger of the two, the 270,000 sq ft Compass One underwent extensive renovation between October 2015 and September 2016 to add a new library while keeping existing supermarket Cold Storage and Sengkang MRT/LRT/Bus Interchanges. The Seletar Mall, opened in 2014, features anchor tenants NTUC FairPrice Finest, NTUC Foodfare and Shaw Theatres, the only cinema in Sengkang.
Taking advantage of ambiance at Sungei Punggol, Sengkang Riverside Park is accessible by a 10-minute walk. This 21.3ha park is split into 3 sections spanning both riverbanks and has many trails within the park for visitors to see the marshland up close. There is also a park connector linking cyclists to Punggol Waterway. Anchorvale Community Club and Sengkang Spots Centre, housing a gym, swimming pool and hockey pitch, form the fourth section around Sungei Punggol.
Come 2022, Anchorvale Village, a new HDB integrated development opposite Sengkang Sports Centre, will offer new shopping options and a hawker centre to serve nearby Anchorvale residents.
Sengkang is surrounded by other towns, old and new. Taking the NEL northward brings commuters to Punggol terminal and by 2023, Punggol Coast Terminal. With similar rural history as Sengkang, Punggol is a place for work and play. At Punggol MRT itself, visitors can shop and dine at Waterway Point or by 2030 earliest, transfer to Cross Island Line to reach Pasir Ris.
Outdoor-loving visitors can take a walk down the Punggol Waterway or explore the rustic heritage of Punggol Promenade, Punggol Point and Coney Island. Diners reminiscing the days of dining by the Punggol Road end can enjoy a similar experience at The Punggol Settlement.
A new Punggol Digital District, Singapore’s first enterprise district to grow the digital industry with 28,000 new jobs and Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) campus, will also open progressively from 2023 at the vicinity surrounding Punggol Coast MRT.
Heading south on NEL will bring commuters to two established towns, Hougang and Serangoon. Hougang, serving NEL at the moment, will become an interchange with CRL when the new station is completed by 2029. An integrated transport hub is set to take shape thereafter, connecting commuters to nearby Hougang Mall, Kangkar Mall and The Midtown at Hougang Central.
Serangoon, with its existing Bus/NEL/Circle Line Interchanges within Nex, the largest mall in the northeast, will be upgraded to sub-regional centre status under the URA Draft Masterplan 2019. More commercial buildings will be built in the next decade, providing work opportunities for people living in the northeast.
There are also other regions near Sengkang not served by NEL but instead a simple 10-minute drive maximum. Formerly Royal Air Force (RAF) Airbase for the British, Seletar has now transformed into a global aerospace hub with its 320ha Seletar Aerospace Park. Featuring over 60 local and international aerospace companies including ST Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Bombardier, Seletar Aerospace Park provides vibrancy for the aerospace industry with over 6,000 industry professionals working under one roof.
Besides work, visitors can also enjoy the rustic and greenery of Seletar through recreation. The Oval, a lifestyle epicenter of Seletar Aerospace Park, alongside Wheeler’s Estate, offers many dining options and outdoor events amidst the conserved black and white colonial bungalows.
There will also be a new park at Hampstead Gardens for park-goers to enjoy the existing wetlands. This is in addition to the existing Yishun Dam and the newly opened Rower’s Bay Park where cyclists can enjoy unblocked views of Yishun and Johor Straits.
Singapore’s first airport, Seletar Airport, built for the RAF in 1929, underwent expansion in 2015 and today supports Seletar Aerospace Park and civilian flights operated by Firefly.
Jalan Kayu, a road built in 1928 to link Seletar Airbase, is now a quiet neighborhood with rows of shophouses dating back to the 1960s, unaffected by the HDB flats that sprung up in nearby Sengkang West/Fernvale. This nostalgic enclave is home to the famous Jalan Kayu roti prata.
An estate of over 30 years old, Defu Industrial Estate is currently undergoing a 20-year redevelopment from a general and food industrial estate into Defu Industrial Park, a 130ha land area offering 2.1m sqm of industrial space for industries including logistics, engineering, clean energy, biomedical and existing general industrialists.
In the near future, a new 110ha Lorong Halus Industrial Park will be built over the former landfill, a first in Singapore. Taking advantage of the Sungei Serangoon riverfront and the two landfill topographies, this next-generation industrial park will cater to light and clean industries such as food and lifestyle, bringing more employment to the northeast region.
Post-2030, once Paya Lebar Airbase relocates to Changi Airbase, the free up 800ha land, bigger than Bishan and Toa Payoh combined, will be a brand new community gathering residential, commercial and industrial developments all in one place.