After 7 years of living in Sengkang and having blogged about how densely populated it is (read: here, here, here and here), I have finally moved out of Sengkang. And what a relief it is.
Sengkang is definitely too crowded.
Even at this stage of moving out, there are still stacks upon stacks of uncompleted HDBs and condominiums still under construction. Even at current capacity, the roads are visibly heavy (just look at the morning and evening jams), there are very few inlets and outlets into Sengkang and Punggol, and public transport mass is saturated (trains are full at Sengkang and Punggol stations).
I wonder if the next General Elections will see a rezoned Sengkang being it’s own SMC (Single Member Constituency).
I had this conversation recently where given what we have correctly projected of Sengkang some five years ago, the next five will also be fairly simple to project.
Basically as the various HDB dwellers (akin to ourselves previously) meet their MOP (Minimum Occupation Period) and can finally sell their BTO HDBs, the more affluent ones will almost definitely move out, being sick of the population density. This means that those who remain will be of the lower income bracket or those who choose to stay on and bear with the dense crowds. Couple that with the oversupply of flats, prices of apartments will be cheaper than most of Singapore and will be more affordable to the lower income. Finally add the upcoming hospital attracting older folk coming up and you can see where I’m going.
Sengkang has the potential of turning into a slum in ten years.
Not that I want it to turn into one, but if the government doesn’t do anything about it (or worse yet, is deliberately forecasting it!), then this is what Sengkang will become.
There is no better time to move out of this town.
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