The 12 Two-Track Schools: Which Areas and Homes Are Affected

The 12 schools moving to a two-track Phase 2C from the 2027 registration exercise are not spread evenly across Singapore. Seven sit in the Bukit Timah, Newton and Novena belt, four sit in District 15 around Katong and Marine Parade, and one sits on Sophia Road.

That concentration follows from the selection criterion. MOE picked schools where public housing accounts for less than 40% of dwelling units within 2km, which points at the private-housing districts.

The 12 schools and where they sit

School	Address	Area
Anglo-Chinese School (Junior)	16 Winstedt Road	Newton
Anglo-Chinese School (Primary)	50 Barker Road	Novena
Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary	190 Dunearn Road	Newton and Bukit Timah
Raffles Girls' Primary	21 Hillcrest Road	Bukit Timah
Nanyang Primary	52 King's Road	Bukit Timah and Coronation
Methodist Girls' School (Primary)	11 Blackmore Drive	King Albert Park
Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary	7 Pei Wah Avenue	King Albert Park
St Margaret's School (Primary)	136 Sophia Road	Sophia and Dhoby Ghaut
Tanjong Katong Primary	10 Seraya Road	Tanjong Katong
CHIJ (Katong) Primary	17 Martia Road	Joo Chiat and Katong
Tao Nan School	49 Marine Crescent	Marine Parade
Ngee Ann Primary	344 Marine Terrace	Marine Parade

Two of the clusters are tight enough that their 2km radii overlap. Blackmore Drive and Pei Wah Avenue sit close together off Bukit Timah Road, and Marine Crescent and Marine Terrace are neighbours in Marine Parade. A single home can therefore fall inside the catchment of more than one affected school.

Seven schools in the Bukit Timah and Novena belt

The stretch running from Winstedt Road and Barker Road out along Dunearn and Bukit Timah Roads to King Albert Park carries seven of the 12. The housing along it is predominantly private: landed estates off Dunearn and Holland, older freehold walk-up apartments, and the larger 99-year and freehold condominiums lining Bukit Timah Road.

This is the belt where proximity to a named school has been most visible in asking prices. Listings in the area routinely cite the 1km radius of Nanyang Primary, Raffles Girls' Primary or Methodist Girls' School as a feature.

The two-track design does not remove the value of being inside 2km. It removes the ranking between 1km and 1–2km, which is the distinction those listings have been selling.

Four schools in District 15

Tanjong Katong Primary, CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Tao Nan School and Ngee Ann Primary sit within a few kilometres of one another across Katong, Joo Chiat and Marine Parade.

The housing mix here differs from Bukit Timah. Alongside the private condominiums along Amber Road, Meyer Road and Marine Parade Road, the area holds conservation shophouses, older freehold walk-ups and the Marine Parade and Marine Terrace HDB estate.

Geography matters for these four. Each sits close to the coast, so part of the 2km radius falls over water rather than housing, which concentrates the catchment inland. Our District 15 condo comparison covers how the sub-areas differ, and the reviews of Emerald of Katong, Grand Dunman and The Continuum cover individual projects in the same stretch.

Which households gain and which lose ground

The change redistributes advantage rather than removing it. Under the current rules, Phase 2C applicants at these schools are ranked within 1km, then 1–2km, then beyond 2km, competing for 40 places. Under the two-track design, 30 places go to the within-2km pool with no internal ranking, and 30 to the beyond-2km pool.

Household location	Effect
Within 1km	Loses its ranking advantage over 1–2km households; stays in the within-2km track
Between 1km and 2km	Gains, now equal with 1km households in the same track
Beyond 2km	Gains most, with half the Phase 2C places reserved rather than last in line

A home 300m from Nanyang Primary and a home 1.9km away now sit in the same pool for the same 30 places. The premium that the closest band commanded rests on a ranking that no longer exists at these 12 schools.

Homes beyond 2km gain access they did not effectively have. That reaches a much larger set of addresses, including HDB towns outside these districts, which is the point of the reform.

What this does not change

Distance still decides which track you enter, so the 2km line remains a real boundary. A home 2.1km away and a home 1.9km away fall into different pools.

Phases 1, 2A and 2B still rank above Phase 2C, so sibling and alumni links keep their value. At every school outside the 12, the 1km advantage is intact.

Price effects are not yet observable. The first balloting under the new design happens in the 2027 exercise, and transacted-price data lags listings. Treat any current claim about the premium disappearing as a forecast rather than a measurement.

Checks before you buy for a school

• Confirm whether the school is one of the 12. At the other schools the 1km ranking still applies in full.
• Measure the distance on OneMap from the exact unit address, not the development entrance or the listing description.
• Where a home sits near the 2km line, check which side it falls on, since that now decides the track rather than the rank.
• Budget for the 30-month residency requirement that follows admission on distance priority.
• Where the school is one of the 12 and you are buying at a premium for the 1km band specifically, ask what you are paying for now that the band no longer outranks 1–2km.

Our companion article on the Phase 2C changes from 2027 covers the mechanics of both changes and the effective dates.

Sources: MOE, how distance affects priority admission, MOE, school finder, AsiaOne, 12 schools in areas with less public housing to get new 2-track scheme from 2027, Mothership, more Primary 1 spots reserved for children with no prior connection to school, OneMap, Singapore Land Authority.