In state hands: The Singaporean government has announced its intention to gazette the site of 38 Oxley Road as a national monument. — The Straits Times/ANN
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.
The government announced yesterday 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 their father’s death in 2015.
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.
Kuan Yew died in March 2015, leaving the property to his eldest son, Hsien Loong, who was then Singapore’s prime minister.
In June 2016, the Cabinet – excluding then Prime Minister Hsien Loong, 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 Hsien Yang and Wei Ling, who were the joint administrators and executors of their father’s will.
The two younger siblings alleged that Hsien Loong wanted the pre-war one-storey bungalow preserved for his political gain, against their father’s wishes.
Hsien Loong 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 Hsien Yang after Hsien Loong sold it to him in 2015 at market value.
URA had deferred its evaluation of Hsien Yang’s demolition application, given the NHB study. — The Straits Times/ANN
