The Government has announced its intention to gazette the site of 38 Oxley Road as a national monument. - ST
SINGAPORE: The site of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew’s family home at 38 Oxley Road has been earmarked to become a national monument, and could be converted into a public heritage park.
On Nov 3, the Government announced that it intends to gazette the site to preserve it as a national monument, after the National Heritage Board’s Preservation of Sites and Monuments (PSM) Advisory Board assessed that it has historic significance and national importance.
If a preservation order is made, the Government plans to acquire the site to safeguard and preserve it, said the National Heritage Board (NHB) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) in a joint statement.
“If the site is preserved and acquired, the Government will convert it into a public space, with one possible outcome being a heritage park. This means the site cannot be redeveloped for residential, commercial or other private uses,” said NHB and SLA.
This is the latest development in the long-running dispute over the fate of the Lee family home at 38 Oxley Road, which is owned by Lee Hsien Yang, the younger brother of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The issue resurfaced in October 2024 after their sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, died. She had been living in the house after Lee Kuan Yew’s death in 2015. Lee Hsien Yang subsequently submitted an application to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to demolish the property.
On Nov 3, 2025, the authorities said NHB has recommended preserving the site, after the PSM advisory board found it “to be of national significance, with great historic merit”. This comes about a year after the NHB launched its formal assessment of 38 Oxley Road.
Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth David Neo has accepted the recommendation.
Preserving the site does not obligate the Government to preserve all its existing buildings and structures in their current state, the authorities said, noting that they have not had the chance to assess what state these are in.
A detailed study will be carried out to consider the next steps.
NHB and SLA said the Government will consider all options for the site, including those proposed by a ministerial committee on 38 Oxley Road in its 2018 report, and intends to make a decision “well within this term of Government”.
The committee had suggested a range of options, including retaining the property, retaining the dining room and tearing down the rest of the property, and demolishing it fully.
“Regardless of the option taken, the Government will respect Lee Kuan Yew’s wishes, and will remove all traces of Lee’s and his family’s private living spaces from the buildings,” NHB and SLA said.
NHB said it has given Lee Hsien Yang written notice of Neo’s intention to make a preservation order.
Under the Preservation of Monuments Act 2009, Lee will be given two weeks – until Nov 17 – to submit any objections. The minister will consider every objection before making a final decision on whether to make an order to preserve the site as a national monument, the authorities said.
Singapore currently has 76 national monuments, with the latest one – three blocks of the former Kandang Kerbau Hospital in Hampshire Road – collectively gazetted on Oct 1, 2025. The former hospital premises had been listed as a proposed national monument on Sept 5.
Proposed monuments are accorded similar protections to gazetted monuments, and those who alter or change monuments in a way that affects their character and significance face punishment.
NHB’s PSM division is responsible for identifying and researching potential national monuments. It also recommends nationally significant sites or structures for preservation as national monuments, and advises the Government on matters relating to monuments.
The formal assessment of the 38 Oxley Road site announced in October 2024 was conducted by the PSM advisory board – comprising experts from various sectors – following a study by the NHB for the 2018 ministerial committee report.
Lee Kuan Yew died in March 2015, leaving the property to his eldest son, SM Lee Hsien Loong, who was then Singapore’s prime minister.
In June 2016, Cabinet – excluding then PM Lee, who had recused himself from all Government decisions to be taken on the property – had tasked the ministerial committee to prepare drawer plans of various options for the property.
In 2017, a dispute between the siblings over the house was made public by Lee Hsien Yang and Dr Lee, who were the joint administrators and executors of the late Lee Kuan Yew’s will.
The two younger siblings alleged that SM Lee wanted the pre-war one-storey bungalow preserved for his political gain, against their father’s wishes.
SM Lee subsequently refuted their accusations in a ministerial statement in Parliament, after having raised “grave concerns” over the “troubling circumstances” around the preparation of their late father’s final will.
The house now belongs solely to Lee Hsien Yang after SM Lee sold it to him in 2015 at market value.
URA had deferred its evaluation of Lee’s demolition application, given the NHB study. - The Straits Times/ANN
