From copra mills to city-fringe suburb
Early maps write the name as Gaylang or Gelang, explained either as Malay gelang, an anklet, or kilang, a mill, after the copra presses that once lined the river. Orang Laut moved here from the Singapore River mouth in the early 1840s and founded Geylang Kelapa; Alsagoff’s Perseverance Estate grew lemongrass, and the name Geylang Serai arose at the start of the 20th century. From 1900 shophouses, terraces and bungalows spread along the lorongs, and by the 1920s and 1930s the area was a city-fringe residential suburb.
Public housing followed: the Singapore Improvement Trust’s Kallang Airport Estate on Old Airport Road (1958), MacPherson’s first ten-storey blocks (1961) and Eunos Crescent (1976). Joo Chiat Road was named after Chew Joo Chiat by 1917, and Joo Chiat became a conservation area in July 1993.
What the planning area covers
URA’s Geylang planning area is larger than the red-light lorongs the name calls to mind. Its subzones are Aljunied, Geylang East (which takes in Joo Chiat, Geylang Serai, Eunos and Paya Lebar), Kallang Way, Kampong Ubi and MacPherson. Dakota Crescent and Old Airport Road fall inside it; the Katong side of East Coast Road is in Marine Parade.
New launches
- The Continuum — Hoi Hup Realty and Sunway, 816 freehold units on Thiam Siew Avenue, launched in May 2023.
- Atlassia — K16 Development, 31 freehold units on Joo Chiat Place, launched in May 2022.
- Koon Seng House — Macly Group, 17 freehold units on Koon Seng Road, on sale from March 2024.
There is no government land sale site inside the boundary.
Getting around
Eight stations sit inside the boundary: Aljunied, Paya Lebar and Eunos on the East–West Line; Dakota, Mountbatten and MacPherson on the Circle Line; and Mattar and Ubi on the Downtown Line.
Schools with pages here include Kong Hwa School, Geylang Methodist (Primary), Haig Girls’ School and Canossa Catholic Primary.
Who manages the buildings here
Ocean IFM (20), Chambers Property Management Services (19) 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 14 and District 15 pages.
Sources: URA Master Plan 2019 planning area and subzone boundaries (data.gov.sg); NLB Infopedia (Geylang); BiblioAsia (Geylang and its lorongs); NLB Infopedia (MacPherson); Roots.sg (SIT Kallang Airport Estate plaque); NLB Infopedia (Joo Chiat); EdgeProp (The Continuum); EdgeProp (Atlassia); EdgeProp (Koon Seng House). Buildings are listed when their coordinate falls inside URA’s boundary for the planning area; prices are left out because they change.
