Housing in Hougang & the North-East

This hub gathers our guides to the HDB estates and neighbourhoods of the North-East, starting with Hougang and Serangoon. They describe what each estate is like to live in: where it is, how old the blocks are, what is within walking distance and how to get around. They are neighbourhood guides, not property advice, so we do not cover flat prices or buying decisions. For those, check with HDB directly.

HDB Hougang

Hougang is one of Singapore’s bigger HDB towns, with about 610 residential blocks and nearly 60,000 flats by HDB’s records. HDB began developing it in 1977, and most of the town went up in the 1980s and 1990s. Our HDB Hougang guide walks through the estates area by area, from Kovan and Avenue 1 to the newer blocks around Buangkok, and explains upgrading programmes such as HIP. At the town’s southern tip, Lorong Ah Soo is a quiet estate of 18 blocks completed between 1983 and 1985, once known locally as Hainan Garden. For repairs, lift faults and common areas, our Hougang town council guide explains which council looks after your block. Kovan, covered in our Kovan guide, adds streets of terrace and semi-detached houses a few minutes from the MRT.

Serangoon and the newer towns

In Serangoon, Serangoon North is really two neighbourhoods: an older village centre known for its pet shops and an estate built in the early 1990s, with a Cross Island Line station on the way. On the western edge, Lorong Chuan is mostly private housing around a Circle Line station. Further north, Sengkang’s Anchorvale Village shows the newer model: HDB flats built on top of shops, a hawker centre and a supermarket. If you are weighing up older and newer towns, our comparison of living in the North-East sets them side by side.

All our housing and neighbourhood guides are listed below by area.