Bukit Timah Turf City Masterplan and Dunearn House

The former Bukit Timah racecourse is the largest piece of land URA has opened for new housing in the central region in a generation. Dunearn House, on its southern boundary along Dunearn Road, is the first private residential development to launch within it.

From Racecourse to Housing Estate: the Setting of Dunearn House

Horse racing came to Bukit Timah in 1933, when the Singapore Turf Club moved here from Farrer Park. Over the following decades the club built out its grandstands and its parade rings, hosted royal visitors and, in 2010, the equestrian events of the Youth Olympic Games. When racing moved to Kranji at the turn of the century, the grounds became Turf City, a relaxed enclave of restaurants, sports halls, riding schools and car showrooms set among the old stables.

In May 2024 URA set out its long-term intentions for the 176-hectare site. It plans a new estate of about 15,000 to 20,000 public and private homes, to be built over 20 to 30 years, with heritage, nature and community spaces at its centre rather than at its edges.

What URA Has Published for the Estate Around Dunearn House

• Heritage kept in use. URA’s Master Plan 2025 proposes 22 heritage buildings for conservation, including both grandstands, to be rejuvenated as community nodes.
• A car-lite estate. Homes are planned with fewer parking lots, walkable streets and cycling routes, and URA aims for an MRT station within a ten-minute walk of every home.
• Two rail lines. The estate is served by the existing Downtown Line and by the Cross Island Line, whose Turf City station LTA is building along Turf Club Road near the former grandstand.
• Roads under study. Widening of Eng Neo Avenue, Dunearn Road and Bukit Timah Road is being studied to support the new homes.
• Green edges retained. The developer’s brochure notes that the Eng Neo Avenue and Bukit Tinggi forests are retained in the plan.

Sources: URA media release of 23 May 2024; URA Master Plan 2025, Bukit Timah Turf City; LTA release of 27 May 2024. Plans are subject to the relevant authorities’ planning.

Why Dunearn House Comes First

A new estate is built in phases, and the first homes to launch set the address that later phases grow around. Dunearn House takes the southern frontage onto Dunearn Road, closest to the existing Sixth Avenue station and to the established shops of the Sixth Avenue stretch, while the interior of the estate is still being planned. Frasers Property describes the project as giving homeowners a first-mover position in the precinct.

The architecture takes its cue from the site’s history. The rooflines of the blocks echo the modernist North Grandstand, and the gardens are organised around a Mirage Forest and a canopy trail rather than a single pool deck. The project details page covers the development, and the MRT guide covers the two lines.