Good news for home buyers or property investors who are considering to purchase a condo in the Core Central Region (CCR). Just right before Valentine’s day, the National Parks Board (NParks) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) unveiled plans to enhance our green spaces in the city.
Year on year, CCR has the highest increase of 4% in condo rental price across all regions in Singapore.
As part of ongoing plans to enhance Orchard Road as a lifestyle destination and to ‘Bring Back the Orchard’, Singapore’s signature street is envisioned to be transformed into a lush green corridor by introducing new green spaces and lush planting.
What are the proposed plans?
1. Istana Park
The current 1.3ha Istana Park will be redesigned to combine with the existing Dhoby Ghaut Green and Penang Road Open Space to create a larger green space complete with a new nature play garden on Orchard Road.
There will be new connections from Istana Park to Fort Canning Park via an upcoming linkway at 9 Penang Road (former Park Mall) and proposed sheltered escalators leading from the pedestrian underpass at Canning Rise to Fort Canning Centre at the hilltop.
2. Dhoby Ghaut
Proposed plans for the Dhoby Ghaut sub-precinct include pedestrianising a section of Orchard Road from Buyong Road to Handy Road. This allows Istana Park to be better integrated with the Istana entrance and the commercial establishments in the sub-precinct. Together with Dhoby Ghaut Green and Penang Road Open Space, the redesigned Istana Park can more than triple in size to form a new green oasis in Orchard.
Flexible spaces will be created for lifestyle programming, for commercial establishments to extend their activities into a park setting, and to bring greater vibrancy into the entire area.
3. Fort Canning Park
In 2019, NParks completed works for the first phase of enhancements for Fort Canning Park. These enhancements include the restoration of nine historical gardens, as well as improved pedestrian access to Fort Canning Park from the River Valley Foothills. The public exhibition will feature the second phase of enhancements for Fort Canning Park, which include strengthening the connectivity from Istana Park to Fort Canning Park via an upcoming linkway at 9 Penang Road (former Park Mall). To improve accessibility to Fort Canning Centre at the peak of Fort Canning Park, sheltered escalators are planned at Canning Rise.
4. Jubilee Park
On the other side of Fort Canning Park is Jubilee Park, a family-friendly park where children can play with swings, see-saws, logs and slides hugging the hill slope. The first phase of the park opened in 2019 and it has been popular with families. The park’s 0.48ha play area will double in size to about 0.98ha in 2021 and will feature a new nature play garden.
5. Singapore River
From the Foothills of Fort Canning, visitors can walk from the lush green hill to the riverfront.
With plans for a new landmark waterfront hotel development in Clarke Quay under the Government Land Sales Programme, the public can look forward to more vibrant and delightful public spaces along the riverfront.
When completed, the public will be able to enjoy a seamless belt of recreation and leisure stretching from Orchard Road featuring a redesigned Istana Park, onto Fort Canning Park, and towards Singapore River and eventually Pearl’s Hill City Park.
Source: URA
