TOA PAYOH ESTATE (Pricing of land for religious institutions)

Mr P. Govindaswamy asked the Minister for National Development and Communications (a) what are the criteria for the pricing of land offered to the various religious communities in Toa Payoh Estate; and (b) whether there is any uniform rate for all the religious communities, and, if not, what are the rates that have been fixed and offered to them.

Dr Tan Eng Liang (for the Minister for National Development and Communications): Mr Speaker, Sir, the pricing of religious sites in Toa Payoh and other estates is based on public tender. There is no uniform rate for all the religious communities as under the tender system the sites are usually allocated to the highest tenderers.

In cases where religious buildings are required to be cleared for development purpose, a single site is made available to accommodate several resettlement cases combined together, for example, temples or mosques. Under exceptional circumstances, a vacant site is offered to a religious institution to build. In these special cases, prices of land will be determined by the land valuer, in accordance with the prevailing market values at the time of offer and the locality of the site.