Most apartments within the township consists of simple one, two, or three-room flats, typically in low-rise, walk-up blocks.

[6] The headquarters of Grab, Razer and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are located in Queenstown.

The area was previously known by the Mandarin Chinese name Wu-wei-gang (Wade Giles: Wu-wei-kang), or in Hokkien as Boh Beh Kang.

Previously, the area which Queenstown currently occupies was a large swampy valley with a channel running through in a southeastern direction.

The report proposed the decentralisation of the population away from the city with the building of self-contained residential areas in the suburbs.

A ceremony was held in October that year for Forfar House, a 14-storey block which was a prominent landmark in those days as it was the tallest HDB flat at that point of time.

The former was fully completed in 1969 with three cinemas and a variety of outlets including an emporium, a fresh food market, a maternity and child health centre, a bowling alley and a nightclub cum restaurant.

In the 1970s, the success of the new town led to the development of Buona Vista and Holland Village, using the older neighbourhoods of Queenstown as a model.

[11] It consists of 16 subzones, namely Ghim Moh, Holland Drive, Commonwealth, Tanglin Halt, Margaret Drive, Mei Chin, Queensway, Portsdown, Buona Vista, Singapore Polytechnic, Dover, National University, Kent Ridge, Pasir Panjang, Pasir Panjang II, and the Port.

The coastline was dotted with Malay villages, the main economic activities being fishing and small-scale agriculture.

Today, Pasir Panjang is a popular recreational area for sea sports and attractions such as the Haw Par Villa.

The new blocks were launched on Tree Planting Day 2005 and SERS Completion Ceremony on 6 November 2005 with guest of honour, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and Member of Parliament for Tanjong Pagar GRC.

[note 1] Being the first satellite HDB town in Singapore, Queenstown has one of the highest proportions of elderly aged 65 and above.

Further developments in Dawson located in Princess Estate have attracted many young Singaporeans to this area in the 2000s as part of the urban renewal efforts.