Lee Hsien Yang will apply for Oxley house to be torn down

Mr Lee Hsien Yang, the youngest child of founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, said he will be applying to demolish the house at 38 Oxley Road to build a small private dwelling.

In a Facebook post on Oct 15, Mr Lee, who is the younger brother of Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong, said the entity would be “held within the family in perpetuity”. He did not elaborate on who he would file the application with.

The announcement follows the death of their sister, Dr Lee Wei Ling, on Oct 9.

Dr Lee and Mr Lee Hsien Yang were the joint administrators and executors of the late Mr Lee’s will. In 2017, they made public their dispute with SM Lee, who was Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s oldest child, over the will regarding 38 Oxley Road.

The two younger siblings had alleged that SM Lee, then the prime minister, wanted the pre-war house preserved for his political gain, against their father’s wishes.

But SM Lee 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.

SM Lee sold the house to Mr Lee Hsien Yang in 2015 at market value, on the condition that they both donated half of the value to charity. SM Lee donated 100 per cent of his proceeds.

In 2018, a ministerial committee looking into what to do with the Oxley Road property had recommended three options for a future government to decide on. They were: to preserve the property and gazette it for conservation or as a national monument; to retain the basement dining room, which has the most historical significance, and tear down the rest of the property; or to allow the property to be demolished fully for redevelopment.

SM Lee said subsequently that he accepted the ministerial committee’s conclusions, but that there was no need to make an immediate decision as his sister continued to live there. Dr Lee’s death last week means the house has become unoccupied.

Mr Lee Hsien Yang reasserted his claim on the property on Oct 15.

“I am the sole legal owner of 38 Oxley Road. After my sister’s passing, I am the only living executor of my father Lee Kuan Yew’s estate.

“In his will, he wished for the house to be demolished ‘immediately after’ Wei Ling moved out of the house. It is my duty to carry out his wishes to the fullest extent of the law,” he wrote in his post.

“Lee Hsien Loong said in Parliament in 2015 that when Wei Ling passed, it would be up to ‘the Government of the day’ to decide whether to allow demolition. It has been nine years. That day is today,” he added.