This is an older HDB estate, apparently one of the oldest. It was built between 1960 and 1967. These houses were known as Chup Laus, that is, ten-storey houses in an old housing estate. These ones, specifically Blocks 74 to 80 of Commonwealth Drive (very close to Commonwealth MRT station) were condemned, or put in a nicer way, earmarked for the Selective En Bloc Replacement Scheme in 2008. As part of the scheme residents have moved into replacement flats and the area
reportedly looks like a ghost town. That was all I needed to know and I went for a visit.
Although parts of it indeed look like a ghost town...
...it is not completely empty. And I thought everybody would have moved out...Earmarked in 2008 and all.
Pertinent.
The old in the foreground and the new in the background.
Most of the shops are gone, closed for good.
