2 new commercial belts for Singapore

By Romesh Navaratnarajah:Singapore will get two more commercial hubs – the Southern Waterfront City and the North Coast Innovation Corridor, according to the government's new Land Use Plan.

The development in the south will start from Marina Bay and extend to Pasir Panjang, while the northern corridor will span from Woodlands to Punggol.

Meanwhile, Jones Lang LaSalle expects the Southern Waterfront City to be the more popular of the two areas given its proximity to the city centre and the existing HarbourFront commercial belt.

It will form an extension of the central business district and will further establish Singapore as the key financial hub of the region, said Alice Tan, Senior Manager for Research at Knight Frank Singapore.

At the same time, the North Coast Innovation Corridor is expected to boost economic activities in the area, especially for residents living in Punggol, Seletar, Sembawang and Woodlands.

However, the area could take around 10 to 15 years to develop, noted Tan. But it will likely see more interest should the development of Iskandar, Malaysia gather speed, added JLL.

Moving forward, "areas that are situated near to the growth areas (e.g. Jurong Gateway, Southern Waterfront City) would benefit from the upcoming significant investments in infrastructure," Tan said.

Image: Map showing the location of Singapore's two new commercial belts. Romesh Navaratnarajah, Senior Editor of PropertyGuru, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email romesh@allproperty.com.sg Related Stories:Foreigners can now build hotels in MyanmarInvestors cash in on the rush for black gold Property prices not top concern for companies

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