9 years ago, after my 35th birthday, I started my journey to find a HDB 3 room flat under the Single Singapore Citizen Scheme. The first priority was to find a place to call my own. But at the back of my mind, I had a vision to find a place that could be an en-bloc potential many years down the road. No harm right? Since I've lived in Queesnstown all my life, and would like to continue living in close proximity to my siblings and parents who are also living in Queenstown, it made my selection easier - just focus on Queenstown HDB resale flats. My first criteria was to find an old HDB 3 room flat - the older the better! Mine was built in 1971. It's the early "Simplified" version of a HDB 3 room flat. The type where the toilet and bathroom were joined together as one. Yucks! Thankfully, when I bought it, it's already upgraded where we have a new extra bathroom attached. Phew! Next was to find as low rise a block as possible. Mine was a 10 storey flat. Put yourself in the shoes of a developer - would it make more financial sense to tear down a 10 or 16 storey flat to rebuild into a 30-40 storey flat? My HDB estate is located near One North. Just thought if one day One North needs more space for expansion... And by the way, if I need to rent out a room or the whole flat for income, I think those FTs working in One North would be interested? It's good to have options! Also, opposite my flat are those black and white bungalows from our colonial days where there's huge development potential many years down the road. Only one catch - we were separated by the Malaysian railway track... I remember thinking we cannot let this "anomaly" continue where another sovereign country has a dagger that stabs right into our city center. Was cautiously optimistic that in 20 years time, we should be able to get the land back from Malaysia - especially with Mahatir out of the way. Was pleasantly surprised we got it back so much sooner! Now that's new Malaysia/Singapore relationship for you! So location wise, wearing the lens of a city planner, the HDB estate where I bought my flat looks very likely to be in the way of future development. Yesterday, I got a pleasant visit by HDB officials personally knocking on my door. It's to inform me that I just won the SERS lottery! It was in the TV news yesterday. I'll be part of the New Beginning at Dawson en-bloc development. The 5 new development sites are near Commonwealth Avenue and Margaret Drive. I know that area well. My old Hua Yi Primary School was torn down for this development. It's always nice to exchange old for new. Especially when I remember being a bit sore that as a single, I can't buy a new BTO flat directly from HDB. I guess my turning a lemon to lemonade vision has panned out well. Now I will have a brand new HDB flat in Queenstown just like you all married couples. Hmm. The new HDB flats got fight with Pinnacle - got roof top gardens and sky bridges. As I've always said, I prefer to be lucky than smart! P.S.  I'll explain in another post why it's a vision and not a plan or goal.

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Singapore Man of Leisure (welcome to my blog; just google it!)