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Some 5,000 new Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats will be built in the Mount Pleasant area on the Old Police Academy site within the next five years.

They will be the first Build-To-Order (BTO) project be launched there, HDB said on Nov. 23.

Details scarce for now

Details are scarce at the moment, but it was announced that the community spaces to be developed in the estate will incorporate four existing buildings belonging to the Old Police Academy, along with the parade square.

Residential blocks will come with sky and roof gardens, lush greenery, and pedestrian routes, which are the only details revealed so far as the estate is still in the conceptual stage.

The design will take after the area, which was developed in the 1920s, National Development Minister Desmond Lee said.

A low-rise neighbourhood centre will house amenities, such as retail shops, to serve the estate, the HDB, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) said in their joint statement.

Smaller than Bidadari

The 33ha new estate is about one-third the size of Bidadari.

Mount Pleasant is bounded by Thomson Road and the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) and close to the mature town of Toa Payoh.

The upcoming Mount Pleasant MRT station on the Thomson-East Coast Line will open in tandem with the completion of the BTO projects.

There are currently no plans for private housing in Mount Pleasant, and it is still not known if the HDB flats launched there will fall under the new prime location public housing (PLH) model.

Existing greenery largely maintained

The site for the housing estate is on a "brownfield" site, which is land that had previous developments on them.

The area has been earmarked for residential use in the URA's Master Plan since 1998.

Minimal clearance of existing vegetation will be carried out.

Polo club affected

The government will acquire part of the Singapore Polo Club, some 3,000sqm or 3.3 per cent of its total land area, to become part of the estate.

A stable, a storage shed and a sand pit will be affected.

The clubhouse, field and main horse stables will not be, said SLA.

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