Located in D20, Clover Avenue is a very long road, with a few side streets. There are some commercial shophouses on one side, and a large park, Clover Crescent Playground, on the other. When I was driving here from town, Google Maps directed me to drive over using Lornie Highway then Jalan Pempinpin. I have to confess to feeling not very impressed with the area at first, due to the large number of construction projects in the Thomson and Marymount area. In addition, Jalan Pempinpin is quite an industrial area, so I wasn’t expecting much from Clover Avenue. However, the estate ended up pleasantly surprising me with how liveable it is! Join me on my walkabout of the area below to see why.
For those not familiar with the area, here’s the map. As you can see, Clover Avenue is parallel to Jalan Pempinpin and, over at Jalan Pempinpin, you can find several offices such as APS Industrial Building, Pempinpin Industrial Building, and the like. As mentioned in the headline, the estate is within a 15 minutes walk of Junction 8, and Bishan MRT. I’ve previously classified 15 minutes as “walking distance” in previous landed estate tours, with some readers commenting to say that they disagree. Certainly, when the sun is out in full blast during mid day, I can see why some people would say that 15 minutes is too far to walk. As such, you’ll be glad to hear that Clover Avenue is also close to a 2nd MRT, Marymount MRT – with the houses between 9 to 14 minutes walk of Marymount MRT. (In terms of retail shops and amenities, there is, unfortunately, much less at Marymount MRT as compared to Junction 8!)
Here, we’re looking towards Jalan Pempinpin – do you see what I mean about that bit feeling very industrial?Here’s what the left of Jalan Pempinpin looks like.And this is the right. This part looks a bit more promising, so let’s explore.We’re passing the Clover Avenue Houses on our right. There’s an interesting building ahead, so let’s get closer.Oh it’s a temple! Tien Kong Thin Temple, according to Google. I didn’t go in to take photos as I’m not sure it it’s allowed, but it does add some color to the neighbourhood. (It was also very quiet as I didn’t see any devotees around.)
There’s not much further ahead (besides the houses on Jalan Binchang) so we’ll head back to get back to the main focus of today’s tour: Clover Avenue.
This is 1 of the 3 side streets off Clover Avenue, also named Clover Avenue, that links it to Jalan Pempinpin.It’s mostly smaller terrace houses along here. However, the area felt open and spacious as it was still possible to find parking on the side street. (And you can drive through without worrying about your car.)Close to the side street is a group of shophouses.It’s a very short row but here you have quite a good selection of eateries: a Pizza place, a bar, a Thai restaurant, and a coffee shop which has Indian Muslim and Malay food. All the eateries had reviews over 4 on Google at the time of writing.I couldn’t take close-up pictures as it was dinner time and there were people in the eateries – above is as close as I could get.However, as shown above, there was a long line of cars parked next to the shophouses so they seem pretty popular!
There are no supermarkets here but you can walk to Esfira on Jalan Pempinpin, to Fairprice Finest at Junction 8, or to Shunfu HDB estate. For your fitness buffs, there’s the gym, BFT Upper Thomson, along Jalan Pempinpin.
Now that we’ve seen the amenities, let’s get back to the houses!This is the main Clover Way road. As shown, it’s a pretty long stretch, with some rolling bumps.Parts of it have a single white line, and parts of it have a dotted white line, so you can park along part of Clover Way (but not all of it.) When I visited, there was no issue finding a space to park or driving down Clover Way. (Your visitors, or your 2nd car, may not be able to park right outside your place, but they should be able to find a space not too far away.)Nice broad roads with cars only parked on one side, which makes it much easier to drive through. Here’s Clover Crescent Playground. It’s one of the better-used parks that I’ve seen on my walkabouts (in that I saw a lot of residents using it. Some were having a catch-up session, which gave the area quite a nice community feel, and is one of the reasons I found it so liveable.)
There are 2 other large playgrounds close by, Clover Way Park and Binchang Rise Playground, so kids (and fur babies) will have lots of space to roam. (Both playgrounds are within 5 minutes walk of Clover Crescent Playground.)
I’m standing at the border of the playground looking across. The playground is large enough that I can barely see the houses on the opposite street (Clover Crescent.)As you can see, it’s quite nicely landscaped.With some playgrounds rides, but nothing out of the ordinary – the main attraction is the sheer amount of spaceAn outdoor gym for adults.Some seating area (pity it’s not shaded, given the heat.)After the playground, the houses start becoming larger and it almost feels like we’re in a totally different estate.Quite a sizeable house this is!There are also some units that could potentially be turned into dual-key houses (note the external staircase leading to the first floor), although the ground floor unit may be quite dark if there is no skylight or air well.More vintage houses, with large grounds.The estate is a comfortable place to take a walk as there are decently sized pavements (and no plant pots blocking the way) i.e. you can walk on the pavement instead of having to walk on the road and worry about being mowed into by oncoming traffic.See what I mean about the estate feeling totally different here?Don’t these houses look a LOT bigger than the ones we saw before?With room to build upwards (for some units), as you can see!We’re actually walking in the direction of Junction 8, so the larger houses (semi-Ds and detached units) are closer to Bishan MRT (and Junction 8.)The outside areas also feel better taken care of here. The grass above, for example, looks perfectly manicured.This brings us to Binchang Walk, where you’ll find even bigger houses. If you turn right, you’ll reach Clover Way Park playground. (Both the street to the right and the street to the left can take you to Junction 8. It’s an old and large Capitaland mall, so I don’t think it’ll need an introduction. You can find everything from Bishan Bus Interchange to banks and Best Denki there. If you really want to know about the shops, click here for the Junction 8 Store Directory.) You’ll have to cross Bishan Road to get to Junction 8. It may just be me, but I find having to cross the road always makes something feel a bit further away than it really is.
Like Bukit Timah, Bishan is known for its large number of famous schools. Depending on which unit you’re looking at, the houses at Clover Avenue may be within 1 km of schools such as Catholic High and Marymount Convent. You’re also just across the road from Raffles Institution.
This brings us to the end of today’s article. I entered the estate feeling skeptical about it but left thinking I wouldn’t mind living there. According to Edgeprop, transactions in this estate are quite limited, there were no sales in 2023 and 2024, for example. So it seems like some of the residents may agree with me! Let me know what you think in the comments!
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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