 In November 1954, Singapore United Rubber Estates Limited and Sembawang Rubber Estate Limited, two Singapore rubber companies with a joint-multimillion-dollar plan to build low cost houses for sale to the public on installment, appointed Koon-Teck to be on their respective Boards of Directors in London.In March 1955 he said that his life's ambition was to build low-cost houses for low-salaried wage-earners.He was, at that time associated with two housing estates whose object was to build 2,000 to 3,000 houses for people with low incomes, and factories producing building materials.