Experts said if the area is developed into a residential neighbourhood, demand will likely be robust given its central location and a lack of new housing options there.
They added that any new public housing to be built at the Gillman Barracks site would likely fall under the Prime or Plus categories in a new classification scheme for Build-to-Order (BTO) projects.
Prime and Plus category flats are typically new ones in central or choice locations, and come with stricter sale conditions.
PRESERVING CULTURE, HERITAGE
The government has been working to preserve the culture and heritage of different estates, said observers.
“On the one hand, we have a lot of future developments. On the other hand, we want to keep as many of these buildings that are meaningful to Singaporeans as possible,” Dr Woo Jun Jie, senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
“So the trade off, sometimes, is that we may have to give up some of these existing spaces for new users. In other instances, we may have to peel back some of our emerging needs (and) design a space so that we can retain the old buildings, even if that may not be the most efficient use of space.”
For Gillman Barracks there may at least be efforts to preserve the black and white colonial-era buildings, said Dr Woo. For instance, these may be used as preschools or for community activities.
