Housing for LASALLE College of the Arts Students

LASALLE College of the Arts sits at 1 McNally Street, a two-minute walk from Rochor MRT station on the Downtown Line, in the Rochor and Bras Basah area of central Singapore. LASALLE doesn't run on-campus housing or halls of residence, so every student is finding their own room somewhere on the island. This guide covers exactly where the campus sits, what an arts student actually needs from a room, and honest commute numbers from Lazybee's three co-living houses.

Where exactly is LASALLE, and why does that matter?

LASALLE's main campus, the McNally Campus, is at 1 McNally Street, Singapore 187940, tucked between Short Street and Prinsep Street. Rochor MRT is the closest station, about a two-minute walk from Exit A. Little India MRT is roughly an eight-minute walk, Bugis around nine minutes, and Dhoby Ghaut about fifteen. LASALLE also runs a second, smaller site, the Winstedt Campus near Newton, opened 2013, adding studio and workshop space for Fine Arts, Media Arts, and Design.

That's a genuinely central campus by Singapore standards, in the same broad stretch as Bugis, Little India, and the Bras Basah arts precinct. Anywhere reasonably connected to the Downtown Line, or a line that feeds into it, keeps your commute workable.

What a LASALLE student actually needs from a room

LASALLE runs eight schools covering a wide spread of creative disciplines: Fine Arts, Film & Animation, Design Communication, Fashion, Spatial & Product Design, Contemporary Music, Dance & Theatre, and Creative Industries. What a room needs to handle depends a lot on which of those you're in, more than a generic "student housing" checklist accounts for.

Fine Arts and Spatial & Product Design students end up with finished pieces and materials that need somewhere to sit besides the middle of a shared room. Fashion students carry fabric, patterns, and often a sewing machine that eats floor space fast. Film & Animation students work off editing rigs that want a stable desk and reliable internet for exporting large files. Music and Dance & Theatre students deal with instruments, rehearsal schedules, and the kind of late nights a lecture-only degree doesn't have.

An all-in furnished room removes one real problem for a multi-year diploma or degree: you're not buying, then reselling, a desk and mattress halfway through art school. Lazybee's rooms come furnished with rent that's typically all-in on utilities and wifi, which matters more than it sounds when you're uploading a portfolio or a video edit on a deadline night.

LASALLE and NAFA: similar, but not the same campus

LASALLE and NAFA are Singapore's two best-known arts institutions, and they get mixed up constantly, partly because in 2021 they merged administratively into the University of the Arts Singapore, which opened in 2024. The merger is administrative only. Each kept its own campus and identity. NAFA is on Bencoolen Street; LASALLE is on McNally Street, near Rochor MRT, a few stops apart on the same Downtown Line, so a room that works for one often works reasonably well for the other. If you're weighing NAFA instead, our NAFA housing guide covers that campus in the same detail.

The honest commute from Lazybee's three houses to LASALLE

Lazybee runs three co-living houses: Chiltern Park in Serangoon, Ivory Heights in Jurong East, and Thomson Grove near Lentor. None sit a short walk from McNally Street. Here's a realistic picture of each route, built off the actual MRT map rather than a guess.

Chiltern Park to Rochor: the shortest. From Lorong Chuan or Serangoon MRT, the North East Line runs into Little India, where Rochor is one stop away on the Downtown Line. Roughly 20 to 25 minutes MRT to MRT, landing around 30 minutes door to door.

Ivory Heights to Rochor: the longest. From Jurong East, the East-West Line runs across to Bugis, one stop from Rochor, but it's a long ride across the island first. Roughly 30 to 35 minutes MRT to MRT, landing around 40 minutes door to door.

Thomson Grove to Rochor: workable, with one transfer. From Lentor, the Thomson-East Coast Line connects to the Downtown Line at Stevens, running through Newton and Little India before reaching Rochor. Roughly 15 to 20 minutes MRT to MRT plus a transfer wait, landing around 25 to 30 minutes door to door.

Treat all of this as an estimate. Run your own route on Google Maps or Citymapper at a realistic weekday departure time before committing to a room, since interchange crowding and walk speed both move the real number.

Commute at a glance

Which house makes the most sense for a LASALLE student

Chiltern Park and Thomson Grove come out closest on paper, both landing in a similar range with one transfer onto the Downtown Line. Ivory Heights is the honest outlier. Jurong East is a strong location if you're headed to NTU, but it's the wrong side of the island for a daily run into McNally Street.

None of these are a ten-minute walk to campus, and it would be misleading to pretend otherwise. What they offer instead is a private room, a real neighbourhood outside the front door, and a commute that's manageable once you've done it a few times, not miserable every day. Weigh that honestly against hunting purely for proximity, since proximity alone doesn't guarantee a room, a landlord, or a household you actually want to come home to.

Arts programmes run on crit deadlines and rehearsal schedules, not a fixed nine-to-five. We didn't find published details on LASALLE's specific studio access hours, so we're not guessing at a policy here. For that angle, our guide to housing for students working late studio hours and guide to housing for design and arts students in Singapore go deeper than this campus-specific guide does.

What day-to-day co-living looks like for an arts student

Each Lazybee house is a shared home: private, lockable bedrooms with a common kitchen and living space used by everyone in the house. That shared space works well for the informal side of art school, showing a housemate your latest piece over coffee, borrowing an opinion on a portfolio edit, casual conversation a solo studio rental doesn't offer.

The tradeoff is the same as any shared household: a late rehearsal or editing session that runs into the early hours shares a wall with someone else's normal schedule. It's worth asking about current housemates and household rhythm on a viewing, since that shapes daily life more than the room itself does.

Checklist for viewing a room as a LASALLE student

• Check floor and storage space for portfolios, models, fabric, or an instrument case, not just where the bed goes
• Walk the actual route to the nearest MRT yourself, at the time of day you'd realistically be doing it after a late studio session
• Confirm wifi speed and reliability if you'll be exporting large design, video, or audio files on deadline
• Ask about noise levels and whether practicing an instrument or working late is realistic in that specific room
• Confirm what's included in rent (utilities, wifi, common area cleaning) so there's no separate bill juggling
• Check natural light, which matters more for visual art and design work than most housing guides mention
• Confirm move-in timing lines up with your semester or term start date

Frequently asked questions

Is any Lazybee house within walking distance of LASALLE? No. LASALLE's McNally Campus is at 1 McNally Street near Rochor MRT, and none of Lazybee's three houses are in that immediate area. Chiltern Park and Thomson Grove both run around 25 to 30 minutes door to door.

Does LASALLE offer on-campus student housing? We found no evidence of on-campus hostels or halls of residence on LASALLE's own site. Unlike NUS or NTU, LASALLE doesn't appear to run residential accommodation, so most students find their own housing off campus.

Which Lazybee house has the shortest commute to LASALLE? Chiltern Park and Thomson Grove are roughly comparable, both around 25 to 30 minutes with one MRT transfer through Little India or Stevens. Ivory Heights, in Jurong East, is the longest at around 35 to 40 minutes.

Are LASALLE and NAFA the same school? No. Both merged administratively into the University of the Arts Singapore in 2024, but each kept its own physical campus and identity. LASALLE is on McNally Street; NAFA is on Bencoolen Street, a few stops away on the same Downtown Line.

How do I check current room availability? Live availability and room details for all three houses are on lazybee.sg. This guide covers location and commute, not pricing or which specific rooms are open right now.

Next step

If Chiltern Park or Thomson Grove's commute works for your schedule, the next step is booking a viewing through lazybee.sg to see the actual room and household in person. For a fuller look at all three houses side by side, our guide to Chiltern Park, Ivory Heights, and Thomson Grove covers room mix and neighbourhood character beyond just the commute.

Sources: URA, Short-Term Accommodation guidelines; URA, Renting Property guidelines.