WHAT can you buy for $135,000?
A two-room flat in Lorong Lew Lian (Upper Serangoon), perhaps.

But how about a double-storey terrace house in the Kallang area’ One terrace unit in Upper Boon Keng Road was sold for that price in October last year, according to URA statistics.

It sits on a land area of about 725 sq ft with a built-up area of about 1,300 sq ft. How is this even possible?

The catch - the house has only 10 years remaining on its lease.

There are at least 250 such terrace houses here and most of them are on short leases.

Settled down

For Mr C Y Koh, this ‘cheap’ estate has been his home for the last 50 years. He and his wife settled there after their kampung was burnt down in 1961.

The Kohs currently live in their two-bedroom double-storey house with their son, who is in his 40s, and their two grandchildren, aged 13 and 10.

Speaking to The New Paper in a mix of Mandarin and Hokkien, the 71-year-old retiree said: ‘It’s very safe here, everyone knows each other. In the past we didn’t even have to lock our front doors.’

He bought his unit for about $5,000, paying the sum off with monthly instalments of about $30. According to residents, they were given the option to resettle there in double-storey terrace houses with leases of 60 years. Their homes are on State land which is zoned as residential under the Master Plan 2008, on the URA website.

His wife, Mrs A I Koh, 70, said that she would live there until the lease runs out.

The estate is a 15-minute walk from Kallang MRT Station and a 10-minute drive away from the city centre. The Upper Boon Keng wet market is also a five-minute walk away.

Despite the range of amenities, many of the Kohs’ neighbours have moved out. Almost all of them have moved in with their children, said Mrs Koh.

Many units there have been converted to temples or rented out to contractors, who use them to house foreign workers. This is because it’s cheap to buy the houses there.

Mr Koh estimated that foreign workers now occupy half of the houses there.

Sell or rent out

Mr Nicholas Mak, a real-estate lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, said of the estate’s transformation: ‘Many of these owners would either sell or rent out the place to contractors or labour brokers who would then house foreign workers.

‘The contractors might find it flexible to house their workers there rather than in a dormitory.’

He added that with so many foreign workers living there, the estate would become less appealing and less desirable to Singaporeans.

Many of the residents agreed with his sentiment.

Mrs Ou Mei Xia, who is in her 70s and has lived there since the 1960s, said: ‘The kampung atmosphere has diminished. Even though the foreigners don’t disturb us, they make a bit of noise occasionally.’

Madam Phyllis Koh, Mr Koh’s sister who used to live in the estate, said: ‘It’s quite sad. It is very difficult to find areas like these with such a communal spirit in Singapore these days.’

This article was first published in The New Paper.
By Danson Cheong