Workers' Party Member of Parliament Jamus Lim has proposed repurposingunderutilised floors of multi-storey car parks (MSCPs) across Singapore as pickleballcourts, offering a creative solution to the growing demand for playing spaces in the land-scarce city-state.
Speaking during a parliamentary session on March 5, the Sengkang GRC representativenoted that the second-highest floors of many HDB multi-storey car parks are chronicallyunderused, providing sufficiently spacious and sheltered areas that could accommodatepickleball play. Lim suggested that noise concerns could be mitigated through theinstallation of sound-dampening curtains.
The proposal is not without precedent in terms of policy openness. In a 2021parliamentary response, then-Minister for National Development Desmond Lee statedthat HDB is open to alternative uses of MSCP spaces for social and communal facilities.However, no specific pickleball conversions have been approved to date.
Lim's suggestion comes at a time when Singapore is actively scaling its pickleballinfrastructure. The government recently opened an eight-court facility at the Little IndiaBus Terminal and announced plans to construct 50 multipurpose courts over the nextfive years.
The MSCP proposal highlights the creative approaches being explored across Asia to keeppace with pickleball's rapid growth, particularly in densely built urban environmentswhere purpose-built sports facilities compete with other land use priorities.
