When the Housing and Development Board (HDB) announced in July the plan to clear nearly two-thirds of Maju Forest for a new residential development in Sunset Way, a familiar discussion emerged. Does Singapore really need to sacrifice its forests for housing development, the refrain goes. Then don’t complain there aren’t enough flats, comes the retort.
But the underlying expectation is rarely that Singapore should stop building – it is that it should build homes somewhere else first.
This is not the first time that the public has responded to such housing development plans. In 2021, there was concern over the zoning of Dover Forest for residential use.
The question increasingly being asked is: Can Singapore pursue a “brownfield only” development strategy?
For further reading, please visit Channel News Asia here where this article was first published on 3 August 2026.