KUALA LUMPUR: The younger son of Lee Kuan Yew, Lee Hsien Yang will be applying to demolish their family house at 38 Oxley Road to build a small private dwelling.
In a Facebook post, he said he is the sole legal owner of the house after his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling passed away.
"To honour my parents' last wishes, I am applying to demolish the house at 38 Oxley Road and thereafter to build a small private dwelling, to be held within the family in perpetuity.
"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 said.
He added that it has been nine years since his brother Senior Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Singapore's Parliament that it would be up to "the government of the day" to decide on the demolition but nothing has been decided to date.
"It has been nine years. That day is today," he said.
On Oct 9, Wei Ling, 69, died after a four-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare and debilitating brain disease.
Her death reignited the long-standing family dispute over the fate of the iconic home.
The ongoing saga saw both Wei Ling and Hsien Yang estranged from their elder brother, former Singapore prime minister Hsien Loong, over the future of the house, which their parents wanted to be torn down after their passing.
Hsien Loong was accused by his younger siblings of misusing his position to prevent its demolition, an allegation which he strongly denies.
He then sold the house to Hsien Yang at market value with the proceeds donated to charity.
Media reports indicated that In 2018, a ministerial committee recommended three options for the property for the future government.
This includes preserving the property and gazetting it for conservation or as a national monument; retaining the basement dining room, which has the most historical significance, tearing down the rest of the property; or allowing the property to be demolished fully for redevelopment.
Hsien Yang subsequently accepted the ministerial committee's conclusions but said no decision had to be made at the time as his sister lived there.