Residents to move out by end-December next year for major restoration and repair works to be carried out
For the past 44 years, 85-year-old Madam Hasana Ahmad has set up a tent outside her home for Hari Raya celebrations – inviting up to 500 family members, friends and neighbours.
But next year’s celebrations could be the last to be held in the place she has called home for 44 years.
The Singapore Land Authority (SLA) has issued a notice to the 37 families living in her estate in Katong to move out by the end of December next year so that major restoration and repair works can be carried out on the houses.
For Madam Hasana, who has 10 children, 33 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, this means she will have to say goodbye to the home she has known for more than half her life.
“Every day I eat my breakfast, open my window, sit there and talk to my trees. I have planted them nicely but now I have to move away. Even my grass cannot stay,” she said.
“I feel very sad. Every day I cry, so sayang (‘a pity’ in Malay) but what to do?”
Built in the 1950s, the cluster of 42 two-storey terraced homes off Haig Road – in Jalan Binjai, Jalan Gajus, Jalan Tembusu and Jalan Beringin – are state properties rented out by the Government to the highest bidder. They once served as government quarters.
By this time next year, most of Madam Hasana’s neighbours would have moved out of the estate.
Her lease is up in December next year, while the leases for six other families The Straits Times’ spoke to expire in early to mid-2020.
Leases are based on a two-year tenancy period and rents typically range from $2,500 to $3,200, depending on the bids.
SLA said residents who wished to renew their tenancies would be given one final tenancy ending in end-December next year.
Madam Hasana is the longest-staying resident in the estate.
In 1975, Madam Hasana and her husband, who died in 1999, moved into the corner unit in Jalan Binjai. The monthly rent then was $250. Her rent is now $2,500 a month, paid for by her second son.
Her 1,076 sq ft, two-bedroom corner unit comes with a front porch and back garden. Over the years, she has grown moringa, mango and jackfruit trees, sharing the harvest with her neighbours.
Her 10 children grew up in the house and held their wedding celebrations in a tent outside the house. They have all moved out but have family gatherings in the house every weekend. She now lives with her grandson Ahmed Iqbal, 24.
To continue the tradition, Mr Iqbal will be holding his wedding solemnisation in the house later this year.
Madam Hasana grew up in an attap hut in a kampung and has never lived in a high-rise building.
Her daughter Maryam Mohamed, 57, said: “My mother is most at home on the ground, not high up in the air. So now, in preparation for the move, I get her to stay in my house a few nights each week so she can slowly get used to living in an apartment.”
Residents say the kampung spirit is well and alive in the close-knit estate.
Finance and information technology director Hara Mohanty, who has been living in Jalan Tembusu for 10 years, occasionally has potluck dinners with his neighbours, who are mostly foreigners, in the same street.
“It’s such a multicultural place and you really can’t get this kampung environment in an HDB estate,” said the 47-year-old, who lives with his wife and two daughters.
Neighbours also look out for each other.
Group fashion director Johnny Khoo, 50, said his neighbours helped his 83-year-old mother when she fell in their house a couple of years ago. His mother has been living with him in a corner unit in Jalan Binjai for 10 years.
Business owner Terry Peh, 36, who moved in with his wife and two dogs in 2016, said the charm of the neighbourhood attracted him to the estate.
“I lived in an apartment for more than 30 years but there’s something about this old house. I feel alive here. You wake up to the sound of nature and there are hornbills outside your window; it’s a whole different lifestyle,” he says.
The SLA notice, which was sent last month, said major restoration and repair works affecting the roof and internal building elements, among others, will be implemented “to ensure these properties remain relevant and structurally durable”.
An SLA spokesman said that upgrading works will commence in January 2021 and are expected to be completed by the end of 2021.
“Tenants who wish to return after the completion of the upgrading works can register their interest to rent the property at the prevailing market rental,” she said.
In the meantime, SLA and the estate’s managing agent Knight Frank Property Asset Management are in touch with residents to assist with relocation matters, including offering rental options of alternative state properties, she added.
SLA manages more than 5,000 state properties, including colonial black-and-white houses, across Singapore.
Madam Hasana hopes the rent will not be too high for her to return later.
She said: “If rent is low or the same, I want to come back. Better if I can stay here until I die. This is a very good home.”
“Source:[37 families in Katong to move out of state land by end of 2020 for restoration and repair works] © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction”
