Singabloodypore

The Urban Redevelopment Authority estimates there are about 500 state-owned Black and Whites; the Singapore Land Authority estimates there are 700. A handful are also privately owned.

The grandest Black and Whites are in Singapore's prime districts. With rents of about S$20,000 ($13,000) per month they typically house ambassadors or other highly paid expatriates.

But around Seletar Camp, a former British air base in out-of-the-way northern Singapore, a few hundred Black and White bungalows are occupied mainly by Singaporeans and rented out at about S$3,000 ($2,000) per month.

Seletar Camp -- where many streets have London names like Oxford Street and Hyde Park Gate -- is a unique part of Singapore's architectural history and its village-style living provides a rare oasis of tranquillity in the frenetic city-state.

But not for much longer.

State-owned industrial landlord JTC Corp. plans to knock down 174 of the 378 bungalows around Seletar to make way for an industrial park that will host aerospace design firms.

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Seletar residents are bemoaning the imminent loss of their charming houses and spacious gardens amid towering old rain trees, so different from the government-built housing blocks in which more than 80 percent of Singaporeans live.

"Singapore is now so crowded, we are not going to get this kind of space anywhere else," said Manonmani James, 85, who has to vacate her bungalow by the end of 2008.

Residents say the government plan will destroy the close-knit community in Seletar, where residents leave front gates unlocked and allow their children to roam freely in the overgrown gardens.

But they rule out any protest.

"What are you going to do? The government will stamp out the fire before it can even start," one resident told Reuters.

Government-owned JTC says the new complex will create 10,000 jobs and expand Singapore's aerospace sector by an estimated S$3.3 billion ($2.2 billion) when it is completed in 2018.