Mount Pleasant estate to have 6,000 HDB flats, up from 5,000 previously announced

An artist's impression showing the aerial perspective of Mount Pleasant (Picture: HDB)

Four Build-to-Order (BTO) projects are planned for the upcoming Mount Pleasant estate, which will yield about 6,000 new flats upon completion. This is 1,000 more than the 5,000 units previously announced for the 33ha site, HDB says in a Sept 2 press release.

According to HDB, the increased supply follows “further detailed planning studies” and will help to meet strong housing demand.

The first BTO project in the Mount Pleasant estate will be launched as part of the October 2025 BTO exercise. Named Mount Pleasant Crest, it will offer about 1,350 units of two-room flexi to four-room flats. There will also be 270 units of public rental flats.

HDB says the "white flat" layout will be offered at Mount Pleasant Crest. Flat buyers can opt for the open-concept layout, which provides a contiguous living and bedroom space without partition walls, when they are invited to book a flat.

This will be the second BTO project to offer the white flat layout, after the Crawford Heights BTO project, which launched last October. According to HDB, about four in 10 flat buyers opted for the layout at that project.

The Mount Pleasant estate sits on the site of the Old Police Academy (OPA), close to the Thomson Flyover off the Pan Island Expressway. The OPA was used as the training institute for the Singapore Police Force (SPF) until 2005.

Six buildings, which HDB says were “identified as the most significant representations of police heritage”, have been conserved and will be integrated into the new estate. Four blocks will be repurposed for alternative uses such as a neighbourhood police post and SPF Heritage Gallery. One block will continue to serve as the Senior Police Officers’ Mess, while another will be integrated into future developments. Additionally, the former OPA parade square will be retained as public space for community use.

Served by the new Mount Pleasant MRT Station on the Thomson-East Coast Line, Mount Pleasant will be a car-lite estate and include Transit Priority Corridors with dedicated bus lanes, wider foot paths and cycling paths. New roads, including a main thoroughfare named “Old Police Academy Road”, will also be constructed to enhance accessibility. There will also be a sheltered pedestrian thoroughfare that connects the various precincts in Mount Pleasant, HDB says.

Lee Sze Teck, senior director of data analytics at Huttons Asia, believes the Mount Pleasant Crest project that will be launched for sale in October will draw strong interest, due to its location close to Mount Pleasant MRT Station and schools like CHIJ Primary Toa Payoh and Singapore Chinese Girls’ School.

Mount Pleasant’s proximity to Toa Payoh will also factor into demand and pricing. “The project may be a Prime BTO as resale flat prices in Toa Payoh are quite high and the mature estate has one of the highest numbers of million-dollar resale flats,” Lee adds. Prime flats are subject to tighter rules, such as a 10-year minimum occupation period and a subsidy clawback.

Eugene Lim, key executive officer at ERA Singapore, notes that the white flat layout at Mount Pleasant Crest may appeal to younger Singaporeans and homeowners intending to do extensive renovations. “A white flat typology will give them the option to customise their layout to cater to their housing needs, allowing for flexibility over the longer term,” he says.

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