*This is the exact spelling on the street sign, even if Punggol is a more common spelling these days; and yes, “seventeenth” is spelled out.
I visited Ponggol a few years ago, to collect some plants from a kind stranger who offered them to me. When I got there, I was very impressed by her house: it was huge, located in a spacious estate with few neighbours, and even had a view of the sea. We’ve never explored a rare landed estate in Ponggol before, so this incident reminded me it would make a good walkabout for today’s article:
It took around a 30-minute drive from the CBD, and the estate was pretty charming. Unfortunately, I realised Ponggol Seventeenth Avenue was not the same one with the sea view I remembered; but it was interesting enough to still take a look, and we can save the sea-view area for another walkabout:
This estate is full of large vintage houses such as this one.There were even these large features outside one of the houses. I’ve never seen them before – does anyone know what they are?
But, anyway, back to the subject on hand – the estate!
There’s only one way to drive in and out here and we’re looking at it above. In case it’s not clear, I’m standing inside the estate and looking out. Do you see how much open space there is around the landed enclave? It really made the area feel so peaceful and tranquil; I felt like I was in a countryside retreat.A view of the open field on the left.One thing to point out is that Google gave me the wrong instructions: it told me to turn right into the estate, at the junction above. Had I done so, I would have been going against the flow of the traffic; so I ended up having to detour to get into the estate. Luckily there were very few cars out and about, so it wasn’t too much of a hassle.
By the way, despite the spaciousness of the estate, it’s not cut off from the rest of the world; that’s the LRT track shown above; the LRT is quite close. If you turn left, you’ll also end up at Northshore Plaza.
Right after the entrance, we see Northshore Bungalows: a strata-detached housing development. I’ve explored cluster housing before, but gave up on the idea as the units are usually so cramped together. It seems like they’d be even noisier than a small apartment. However, the Northshore ones are very large and spacious. A little research revealed that only 20 to 22 units are housed on about 130,000 sq.ft. of land, which is very impressive.
I was taken enough to do a Google search about the development. Unfortunately, the reviews aren’t great:
To be fair, I think there was only one negative review with valid feedback on Google.
The other negative ratings had no comments, or were by unhappy delivery drivers. (Not to discount the experience of a delivery driver, but I’m not sure whether that information would be relevant for a potential resident, since the two would have different criteria as to what makes a good development – for example, the delivery driver may not care if there are kids yelling all day long but a resident might.)
One thing I was surprised by was the long line of cars outside. I had to drive around the estate twice to find a parking space: there is one specific cul-de-sac with lots of parking, but everywhere else was full. We’re not exactly close to any shophouses or commercial units, so why are there so many cars parked outside?Looking into the development, there’s parking inside, so the many cars parked outside are extra baffling.The line continues…
Here’s where the cluster housing ends, and the regular houses start. As you may have noticed, there’s even a small space between the two dividing walls.
As mentioned earlier: all the way to the end of the road, it’s impossible to find street parking space. The same goes for the streets to the left, but luckily I found a space when I turned right.
Check out this creative use of a tree:
Behind the street signs is the Marriage Encounter House. It sounded like a matchmaking agency, which didn’t make sense, so I did a quick search online. Turns out it’s a place for married couples to work on their relationship. Here’s what you see when you turn in:So far I’ve only seen detached houses in this landed enclave.There are two forks here, and we’re taking the one on the right. Have you noticed how there are no tall buildings looming over the houses here? Even though there are many HDB blocks in Punggol, some of which are visible from this estate, they’re located far enough that you don’t feel their presence.Admiring the resort-style architecture?
It’s not that we don’t find houses in the same style in other parts of Singapore; but the vibe isn’t the same when the houses are all crammed next to each other.
See what I mean about the size of the plots here? This driveway is so long that I can barely see the house itself.Unit for sale, if anyone is keen!In case it’s not clear, these are two rows of houses:The street ahead ends in an open green field.Turning right, we find another cluster house: WhiteShores, also with a low rating on Google, unfortunately (3.8 at the time of writing.)Heading back to the other side of the estate.See what I mean about not being able to find parking in the other parts of the estate? It’s not that the roads are small or that there are parked cars, instead they’ve all been blocked off.We’ve seen our fair share of cones and bins used to reserve parking space on these walkabouts, but this is my first time seeing rocks used to reserve space. A cone or bin is easily movable, which suggests the homeowner might want to use the space him/herself. You can remove it when you want to park. However, pots of stones are much heavier and feel more… permanent.More blocked-off streets.A house being redeveloped.More cars. Something interesting is that there are a lot of smaller covered vehicles in this area. I’ve never seen so many covered vehicles on walkabouts before; you only see one here but there are many more- maybe it’s to protect them from the sea air?Row of housing blocks behind the houses.At the end of the road here, there’s a shortcut to the bus stop.That’s the bus stop.Walking back into the estate.More pots with stones.See what I mean about the covered vehicles?We can also signs of the redevelopment of the neighbourhood; there are a few modern houses here.Here’s another one.
I’m pointing the new houses out as, although the area feels spacious, that may change when new residents move in. Just look at these two units: the new unit is much closer to the boundary wall than the old unit. If all the new builds here are so built up, the estate will soon feel no different from other landed enclaves in Singapore.
This is the last street in the estate along the way: we passed more cones, cars, vintage houses and the like but I figure I’ve shown you enough.We’re ending the tour here to let you appreciate just how open and expansive the estate is.
You can hardly find spaces like this in Singapore now. But as we all know, nothing lasts forever, especially when it comes to property in Singapore. Open spaces usually mean future development, so let’s go take a look at the Masterplan.
As shown, the zoning around this landed enclave allows for several schools and a high-rise apartment, which I imagine will change the atmosphere considerably.
I very much enjoyed my walkaround today but, before we go, there are two things to highlight. First, potential traffic congestion. Punggol is known to have traffic issues (see this 2018 article.)
I was hoping that things would have changed but, alas, not according to this Reddit thread from nine months ago. The second thing to mention is that, if you’re superstitious, you may want to do a Google Search for “Ponggol Seventeenth Avenue” and look at the dropdown search results. I don’t mean to be mysterious but the last time I mentioned something similar, readers left angry comments. At the same time, I think it’s something readers would want to know about.
Now that we’ve reached the end, how did you find the estate?
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
TJ
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