Gillman Barracks housing estate: what stays and what goes

Gillman Barracks has moved a big step closer to becoming a housing estate. HDB published its environmental and heritage studies for the 40 hectare site on July 10, proposing to keep 25 of the 86 existing buildings and about 8 hectares of green space. For buyers, this is the strongest signal yet that a rare city-fringe estate with both public and private homes is in the pipeline.

The Housing and Development Board released the two studies on Friday, July 10, completing groundwork first announced in March 2024, when the government said it was studying a new residential neighbourhood at the former British military garrison. The studies covered 47 hectares in all: a roughly 40 hectare development area bounded by Depot Road, Alexandra Road, Telok Blangah Road and Telok Blangah Street 31, plus a 7 hectare green area to the north.

HDB says the future estate will comprise both public and private homes, close to Labrador Park MRT station on the Circle Line and the future Greater Southern Waterfront district. The public can give feedback on both reports from July 10 to August 6, and the responses will feed into the conceptual plans before detailed planning begins.

What stays

The heritage study assessed all 86 buildings on the site, spread across seven clusters. All four buildings rated of “exceptional” significance, at Preston Road and Lock Road, will be kept. Another 27 buildings were rated “high” in significance, and 21 of those can be retained; the remaining six sit where roads and other essential infrastructure must go, or near the MRT station where land is being optimised for housing.

The heritage study assessed all 86 buildings on the site; 25 are proposed to be kept. Source: HDB heritage study, 10 Jul 2026. Chart: HomeAsset.

Among the keeps are the original Alexandra School block from 1939, which sits on the site’s highest hilltop, the former regimental headquarters of the Singapore Combat Engineers, the old services canteen and social club, the former sergeants’ mess, and 14 of the 16 garrison-style semi-detached houses along Preston Road. HDB says the retained buildings could be repurposed for shops and amenities serving future residents. NUS architecture professor Ho Puay Peng noted that keeping the buildings in clusters is the right approach, because their significance reads as a group rather than as individual buildings.

The retained buildings carry no formal conservation status yet. Agencies will weigh public feedback before deciding whether formal protection follows.

On the nature side, the environmental study recorded 293 plant species and 178 fauna species, including 22 plants and 11 animals of conservation significance, such as the critically endangered straw-headed bulbul. HDB plans to keep the forest stream and most of the native-dominated secondary forest, and to safeguard ecological corridors at least 30 metres wide, creating a green area of about 8 hectares that links Telok Blangah Hill Park to HortPark, Berlayar Creek and Labrador Nature Reserve. Site clearance will be phased so wildlife can move to adjacent greenery first.

What we still do not know

HDB has not said how many homes will be built, what the public-private split will be, or when a launch might come. The agency says the findings and public feedback will shape the eventual housing yield, mix, flat classification and timeline.

Two markers help set expectations. First, the current tenants are staying for now: the Singapore Land Authority says the 24 arts, F&B and lifestyle tenancies on site run progressively until the second quarter of 2030, and none will be cut short. Major works are therefore some years away. Second, on classification, ERA Singapore’s key executive officer Eugene Lim expects future BTO flats here to fall under the Prime or Plus category, given the city proximity and the MRT station at the doorstep. Those categories come with deeper launch subsidies but a 10 year minimum occupation period and resale conditions, including an income ceiling for the next buyer.

For a sense of scale, the upcoming 48 hectare Berlayar estate nearby is expected to house around 10,000 homes, though HDB has given no figure for Gillman Barracks. In the private market, comparable 99-year leasehold condos in the area have transacted between $1,755 and $2,496 psf in 2026, based on reported caveat data.

The same July 10 announcement also covered a second site: a 23 hectare stretch of forest at Sunset Way in Clementi, planned for public housing. We cover that study in a separate article.

What this means for you

• If you are hoping for a BTO near town, Gillman Barracks is now a genuine pipeline site, but a distant one. With tenancies running to 2030, do not delay nearer-term plans waiting for it.
• Budget for Prime or Plus conditions if analysts are right: a 10 year minimum occupation period, subsidy recovery on resale and an income ceiling for your eventual buyer, in exchange for a heavily subsidised entry price at a city-fringe address.
• Private buyers and investors: a future estate here adds long-run demand and amenities to the Alexandra and Telok Blangah corridor, alongside the Greater Southern Waterfront. Existing condos nearby gain a clearer growth story, but also eventual new supply.
• If the heritage or nature outcomes matter to you, the feedback window on HDB’s site closes August 6.