Singapore's first public housing estate in Tiong Bahru is experiencing a second lease of life, after an exodus in the 1990s. By the 1980s and 1990s, families started moving out to the newer Housing Board estates as well as to condominiums. Older residents were left behind and foreign workers started moving in to occupy the empty apartments. SMU Provost and Lee Kong Chian Chair Professor of Social Sciences, Professor Lily Kong, pointed out that this led to a sense of uncertainty among residents. Fear spread among residents that their maturing estate would get torn down, prompting further departures. However, such fears were allayed in 2003 when the estate was gazetted for conservation by the Urban Redevelopment Authority - a move which kick-started a revitalisation of the area.

While Prof Kong noted that there is now a different feel to the place, one thing has remained: It still serves its purpose of encouraging human interaction. She said: "The estate was built with the principle of facilitating social interaction - its structure of low-rise housing, small public spaces interspersed among the apartment blocks and open green pockets provides opportunities for people to run into one another."