A Hong Leong Holdings-led consortium, comprising joint venture partners GuocoLand and CSC Land Group, has secured a S$692 million ( US$537.65 million ) green loan to finance a nature-aligned urban development project in Tengah – a planning area in western Singapore – billed as the city-state’s first eco-friendly and car-lite “forest” town that focuses on sustainable living.

The loan, structured in accordance with internationally recognized Green Loan Principles, will fund the project’s green infrastructure and ecological integration efforts. Singaporean bank DBS acted as anchor lender and sole green loan adviser, contributing S$484 million, with the remainder provided by another Singaporean bank, OCBC.

Tengah – Singapore’s first new Housing Board town since Punggol more than two decades ago – is bounded by a 100-metre-wide and five-kilometre-long forest corridor and envisioned as a car-lite, eco-friendly town spanning 700 hectares. When fully developed, it will provide about 42,000 new homes set within a landscape designed to reconnect people with nature.

The Hong Leong project, slated for launch in 2026, will be Tengah’s first private mixed-use residential development. Located in Tengah Garden Avenue, it aims to create a vibrant residential development comprising approximately 860 homes along with integrated retail amenities. Features include:

• Biodiversity-enhancing design – Layered landscaping and integrated green spaces form ecological corridors that support urban biodiversity and help mitigate the heat island effect.
• Ecological integration – With its proximity to Tengah’s future forest corridor that connects to the Central Catchment Nature, the project will incorporate measures to reduce environmental impact during the development phase.
• Restorative landscapes – Native planting strategies promoting strengthening of ecological networks, habitats restoration and biodiversity, making nature an integral part of daily life.
• Sustainable smart technologies – Integration construction with digital innovation through tools like building information modelling and cloud-based coordination platforms to streamline processes, improve efficiency, enhance collaboration and reduce waste throughout the project lifecycle.

The project aims, Hong Leong says, “to demonstrate how private-sector partnerships and sustainable finance can bring national climate and liveability goals to life – contributing to creating urban spaces that are smart, resilient and in harmony with the natural environment.”

Loke Kee Yeu, the Singaporean real estate developer’s general manager for projects, adds: “As the first developer to embark on Tengah’s maiden private green residential development. We aim to anchor and grow an eco-conscious private housing community, while partnering with like-minded investors and sustainable financiers, such as DBS and OCBC, to bring economic savings and benefit residents in this new smart town area.”