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A Surprising Find: Touring Freehold Strata Landed Homes From $3m In Sixth Avenue
Published 12 May 2024 |
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8min read
BY TJPublished 12 May 20241 comments | 8min read
BY TJ
TJ's interest in property was sparked after returning from the UK- where balconies are not counted in one's square footage!- and finding that the Singapore property had totally changed in the 7 years she was away. When not reading and watching articles & videos about property, she is busy cooking and baking for friends, family & her blog Greedygirlgourmet
Given that any freehold landed property seems to be at least $3 million+ these days – even those that are located in very far-flung parts of Singapore. So I was rather surprised to see that the last 2 sales along Jalan Haji Alias were for $3.575 and $3.65 million respectively (transacted in December 2023 and October 2023.) Hence I thought it would be interesting to visit the area!
As you can see from the sales records shown above, Jalan Haji Alias consists of all types of houses: terraces, semi-Ds, detached units, and even condo townhouses. As such, the transacted and asking prices can vary quite a bit, depending on the size of the land.
If you’re not familiar with this area, Jalan Haji Alias is a long road connecting Sixth Avenue and Coronation Road West, two major landed enclaves in the area. As such, it sees quite a bit of traffic.
Depending on which house you’re referring to, the walk to Sixth Avenue MRT can be anything from 14 to 22 minutes. There are buses that bring you there but, unfortunately, it takes almost as long to get there by bus, according to Google Maps. On the bright side, the bus stop (on Sixth Avenue) is fairly close by, and you will find 3 buses there: 77, 156, and 970. (No buses on the Coronation side.)
Where Jalan Haji Alias meets Sixth Avenue – it usually sees quite a bit of traffic so don’t be fooled by how empty the road looks here. Following Sixth Avenue will take you to either Holland Road or Bukit Timah Road. (We’re looking towards Holland Road now.)
And now we’re looking in the direction of Bukit Timah Road – see what I mean about the cars? (Heading this way brings you to the famous schools nearby: MGS, ACS, SCGS, Nanyang, etc.)
If you go straight on from Jalan Haji Alias, you will reach Laurel Wood Avenue.A characteristic of Laurel Wood Avenue is the humongous plot of greenery opposite the houses, as shown above. This is Greenleaf Forest – behind it is the Holland Green Linear Park and Clementi Forest. There is also access to the rail corridor so you can see that there is no shortage of open greenery in this area. We’ve previously explored two areas around this green space, Ming Teck Park and Namly Avenue– so you can click through if you want to see more of the area.Now that we’ve seen the surrounding bits, let’s head down to Jalan Haji Alias. As you can see, it’s marked by yellow lines on both sides of the road here, so you won’t be able to park on the street.As shown above, too many cars take this road and street parking would severely affect the traffic flow!Luckily, almost immediately to the left is a short cul-de-sac where you can find a few street parking spaces.We pass Hansville, an old condo – it’s indicated to be “temporarily closed” on Google Maps, at the time of writing, which I find slightly bizarre, as I’m not sure how a condo can be closed.The houses here begin with larger units.One thing I would find challenging about living on this street is driving in and out of my property, because it’s such a busy road. Thankfully, some of the houses have extremely long driveways, as shown above, which would make one’s life MUCH easier.As you may have observed, the units here have quite good-sized car porches, so the lack of street parking may not be an issue.How’s that for a long driveway?There were some colourful flags dotted all around the estate, which made it look quite cheery, but I couldn’t figure out what they were celebrating.Some of the houses are built on somewhat sloping land, as indicated by the staircase inside this property.Another thing this street is known for is its mosque, built in 1925, which was recently renovated in 2015. (More information on the mosque can be found below.) Apparently, it used to be part of Kampong Tempe, which was famous back in the day for its tempe (fermented soybean)!
Fun fact: did you know that there were kampongs in Bukit Timah up till the 1980s?
Next to the mosque is Alias Villas, one of several strata developments in the area. This consists of 6 semi-Ds (leasehold) which are “Singapore’s first Islamic endowment villas.” None were for sale at the time of writing, but I did see some up for rent.There’s also Corona Ville, a 41-unit condo townhouse complex that was built in the 1980s. Townhouses and strata houses are an easier way to experience (something similar to) “landed living” if you have a smaller budget. There were a few units for sale at the time of writing starting from $2.799 million. The units here are pretty small though, at around 1,500 sq ft (as don’t forget that the space will be split between several floors.)Something I love about landed living as opposed to apartments is the amount of customization you can put into a place, and turn it into a home that is uniquely yours (as opposed to “cookie-cutter” condos.) Just look at that quirky Coca-Cola bottle sculpture!Corona Court, another freehold development with 14 terrace units, built in 1984. (Also marked as temporarily closed on Google Maps). According to Edgeprop, there have been no sales here since 2013 so residents must be extraordinarily happy living here….Quick look down Jalan Haji Alias.We’ve pretty much reached the end of Jalan Haji Alias here (the side closer to Coronation Road West.) At this end, we find a large playground (to the right of the above photo.)It’s the Coronation Park playground, and has a 4.2 rating out of an amazing 67 Google reviews! I find it impressive that 67 people liked it enough to leave a good review! (According to the reviews, it was upgraded about 4 years ago.)There are amenities for both kids and adults here, though not a lot of shaded cover.It is pretty large though, and stretches quite a good way back, as shown above.Before the playground is a long cul-de-sac, Jalan Siantan, a spacious road in which you can find some street parking.Like Jalan Haji Alias, there are terrace units, semi-Ds, and detached homes. I was going to say that I prefer living on this stretch (quieter) as opposed to on Jalan Haji Alias (busier) but then I saw the transacted prices… Suffice to say, the last time a home here sold for $3m was way back in 2009!Anyway “window shopping” is free, so let’s continue looking at the houses along this stretch!The terrace houses on Jalan Siantan – there’s room to expand upwards too!That brings us to the end of Jalan Siantan. I like how there are no dust bins being used to reserve parking!
So how did you find Jalan Haji Alias? If you’re on the hunt for an affordable (for landed property in Singapore) home in the area, two other nearby areas are Laurel Wood (but note that they are 99-year strata properties) and Jalan Lim Tai See (not a strata unit but leasehold. Having said that, a semi-D in the area sold for $3 million-ish in 2024, which is pretty low for a semi-D!) Let me know in the comments if you’d like to see more of those areas or if there are any other landed enclaves you’d like to see featured!
TJ's interest in property was sparked after returning from the UK- where balconies are not counted in one's square footage!- and finding that the Singapore property had totally changed in the 7 years she was away. When not reading and watching articles & videos about property, she is busy cooking and baking for friends, family & her blog Greedygirlgourmet
Thanks for bringing me down memory lane. I grew up in Jalan Siantan and stayed there for 20 over years. The neighbours knew each other and it’s nice to see some of their houses still the same. I wonder how are my old neighbours as they were very kind people. Fun fact, before coronation park, there was actually a childcare/ kindergarten there.
Thanks for bringing me down memory lane. I grew up in Jalan Siantan and stayed there for 20 over years. The neighbours knew each other and it’s nice to see some of their houses still the same. I wonder how are my old neighbours as they were very kind people. Fun fact, before coronation park, there was actually a childcare/ kindergarten there.