The red hill
Bukit Merah is Malay for “red hill” — in Hokkien, ang suah — a name NLB traces to red soil uncovered when the area was excavated in the 1950s. J.T. Thomson’s maps of 1844 and 1846 show it as forest on the edge of town. In the 1920s the site of today’s town centre was known as Beehoon Plain, and later became a rubbish dump.
Villages of attap huts were common here until 21 blocks of seven-storey government flats went up in 1955, and one- to three-room high-rise flats followed quickly in the 1960s. The Tang Suahn Kiong San Soh Hoo Chu Temple on Henderson Road, described as Singapore’s second-oldest Chinese temple, was demolished on 5 September 1978.
What the planning area covers
URA divides Bukit Merah into 17 subzones, from Alexandra Hill, Redhill and Henderson Hill to Telok Blangah and Maritime Square. That takes in two neighbourhoods with pages of their own — Tiong Bahru and Keppel Bay — as well as VivoCity, HarbourFront Centre, Mount Faber and Singapore General Hospital. Both Zion Road land sale sites also fall inside the Bukit Merah boundary, although the condominiums on them are marketed as River Valley.
New launches and land sales
- Promenade Peak — Allgreen Properties, 596 units on a 99-year lease at Zion Promenade, on sale from August 2025. The Zion Road (Parcel B) site was awarded on 7 August 2024 to Valerian Residential Pte. Ltd.
- Zyon Grand — City Developments Limited and Mitsui Fudosan Asia, 706 units on a 99-year lease on Kim Seng Road, launched in October 2025. The Zion Road (Parcel A) site was awarded on 16 April 2024 to CDL-MFA Vega Property Pte. Ltd. and CDL-MFA Altair Property Pte. Ltd.
- Telok Blangah Road — awarded on 20 November 2025 to Kingsford Huray Development Pte Ltd, 99-year lease; not yet launched.
- Berlayar Drive — awarded on 7 August 2026 to Intrepid Investments Pte. Ltd. and GuocoLand (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., 99-year lease.
Getting around
Eight stations sit inside the boundary: Tiong Bahru and Redhill on the East–West Line, Havelock on the Thomson–East Coast Line, HarbourFront on the North East and Circle Lines, and Telok Blangah, Labrador Park, Keppel and Cantonment on the Circle Line — the last two opened with its sixth stage on 12 July 2026.
Schools with pages here include Radin Mas Primary, Zhangde Primary, Cantonment Primary and Blangah Rise Primary.
Who manages the buildings here
Savills Property Management (6), Chambers Property Management Services (5) manage the most developments inside the boundary. More than a quarter of the developments here have no managing agent on record — many are small blocks run by their own council. Each building page lists its own office contact.
What to have ready
The management office will ask for the MCST number and your unit. Public carparks with live lot counts are on the carparks page; see also the District 3 and District 4 pages.
Sources: URA Master Plan 2019 planning area and subzone boundaries (data.gov.sg); NLB Infopedia (Bukit Merah); URA (Zion Road Parcel A award); URA (Zion Road Parcel B award); EdgeProp (Promenade Peak); EdgeProp (Zyon Grand); URA (Telok Blangah Road award); URA (Berlayar Drive award); LTA (Circle Line Stage 6). Buildings are listed when their coordinate falls inside URA’s boundary for the planning area; prices are left out because they change.
