In Singapore’s competitive property market, buyers often find themselves caught between their aspirations and crushing reality. Budget constraints often force…
A few weeks back, we toured Shangri-La estate: it was nice but all the houses were semi-Ds (or larger), meaning that the entry price into the estate is relatively high. If you were taken by the area, but have a smaller budget, you might be interested in Ellington Square, another landed estate slightly down the road (walking distance) which has terrace houses and semi-Ds.
In keeping with the smaller houses, the last transacted price is also lower: at $3.388 million for a freehold terrace in August 2023. In contrast, prices start from $4.5 million for Shangri-La.
Ellington Square also enjoys many of the same conveniences as Shangri-La Walk:
proximity to CHIJ St. Nicholas (in fact it’s even closer)
Walking distance to Mayflower MRT station (an 8-minute walk vs 13 minutes from Shangri-La walk)
Hawker centres nearby (Sembawang Hills and Mayflower Market)
And a playground located within the estate (you need to cross a busy main road to get to the playground, for Shangri-La)
Here’s a map of the area to give you a better idea of the surroundings.And here’s the Master Plan of the area: as shown, it’s literally right next to CHIJ! (I could not see or hear the school from within the estate when I visited.)To get to Ellington Square from Shangri-La, you turn right when you walk out of the estate.After passing Shangri-La Close, turn right again onto Ang Mo Kio Street 11 (above is what you see.)You’ll need to cross Ang Mo Kio Street 11 to get to Ellington Square.Entrance to the estate.Right outside the estate and immediately across the road are 2 bus stops.2 buses stop there.This is what you see when you look left, when standing near the entrance of the estate. (It’s also the direction towards Mayflower MRT and the hawker centre.)Immediately across Ellington Square (behind the bus stop) is an HDB estate. If you walk deeper into the estate, you’ll find a small supermarket (Ang Mo Kio Supermarket), Mayflower Secondary School, and the famous Melben Seafood.Although Ellington Square is not located on elevated land, the HDB estate is built on a lower-lying area.The houses of Shangri-La close are on the right, perched above the HDB on the left.This is what we see of the HDB blocks when standing outside Ellington Square.And this is the view to the right of the estate. It was pretty quiet the few times I visited.Here’s what you see walking into Ellington Square.
I’m not sure if you noticed, when looking at the screenshot of Google Maps, but the estate is shaped like a square, with a playground in the centre. There are 2 vehicular exits/entrances to the estate, which I think is VERY generous for a landed enclave of this small size.
Terrace houses we pass along the way. As shown, many are in original condition and you can park maybe 2 cars (if you don’t close the gate.)The streets felt more crowded than the ones at Shangri-La Walk (this almost always happens in an estate with terraced units, as you’re crowding more properties into an area.)Head on view to get a better idea of the houses.The street is not very long: on the outer border, the houses are smaller whilst the houses on the inside are larger. We pass maybe 6-8 houses on the inside and reach the end of the street!Since one of the distinguishing factors of this estate (vs Shangri-La) is the playground located within the estate – very handy and safer when you have young kids, let’s head over to have a look.This is what you see when you walk into the centre of the estate.It’s pretty close to the “inner” houses, so you may get noise spillover when the kids are out en masse. (None out when I visited on a Sunday evening.)It’s not a huge area, but you do get a sand pit (not super common in public playgrounds in Singapore.)Here are the rides for kids.A very handy and scenic shaded pavilion for parents/helpers to sit and watch the children.Looks like the land here is not flat either, as the houses on the side are located slightly above the playground.As you can see, not a person in sight.There’s also a sort of walking trail located in the playground. I guess we could even call it a small park?Anyway, we’ve seen everything the space has to offer, so exiting on the other side now, to the view of this interesting modern house.
As you can observe above, future property owners have the opportunity to expand their residences by quite a bit (by building upwards.)
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However, the fact that there are so few re-built houses means that you might have construction ongoing for quite some time in the future, as new people move in and rebuild.Here’s a project in progress that I passed. I’d say less than 15% of the estate has been redeveloped (currently.)Head-on view for you to better appreciate the height difference. The new house looks almost twice as tall?There are 1 or 2 units that have undergone some renovation (but not maximised their plot ratios.)A second “plot-ratio-maximised” house.One thing you may have noticed is the absence of street parking here. There’s a single white line drawn throughout the estate, so technically we’re not meant to park on the street here, which could be a bit of a headache during the festive season.
There are 2 multi-storey car parks in the HDB estate across the road (but I always find it more of a hassle when one has to cross the road.)
Nonetheless, I didn’t see any dustbins used to reserve parking spaces on the street so the residents could either be very law-abiding, very collaborative, or mostly not have cars.As mentioned, we find both terrace and semi-D properties here.
However, there’s also variation within the terrace units. Some are only 1,200+ square feet, whilst others are 1,800+ square feet! (See the 2 photos above.) The smaller properties could represent an interesting opportunity to enter the landed market for those with a leaner budget, as a smaller square footage typically translates into a smaller asking/transacted price.
For example, the houses at MacPherson Garden estate are some of the most affordable in Singapore, because they’re also some of the smallest in size. However, at MacPherson, the majority of the houses are small, so the estate is extremely cramped. In contrast, the smaller properties are the rarer breed in Ellington Square, so the estate feels more spacious. (Which usually translates into a higher quality of life, as you don’t hear your neighbours as much. Neither do you have to stress as much about street parking.)
This brings us out via the second vehicular exit/entrance of the estate. (We’re looking at the houses of Shangri-La Close across the street here.)Turn right after leaving the estate, then left at the junction shown above, and you’ll eventually reach Shangri-La Walk again.
One thing I’d recommend, if you’re looking at a house here, is to visit when CHIJ is having its recess time/PE time to see exactly how noisy it can get. (Noise is always a potential issue when living close to a school.) Having said that, I’m pretty noise-sensitive, so other people may not find it an issue at all.
Now that we’ve seen both estates, which one do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!
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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
2 Comments
Ian
Typo in the title (Mayflower MRT rather than Mayfair in London)!
2 Comments
Typo in the title (Mayflower MRT rather than Mayfair in London)!