D21 has been the talk of the town with the launch of Reserve Residences, which sold over 70% of its units during its launch. Moreover, given the previous request for tours around the Toh Tuck area, I decided it was time to do another D21 feature, namely Highgate Park, in this week’s landed walkabout.
Highgate Park is a small and fairly under-the-radar landed enclave situated in between Toh Tuck Forest and Signature Park condo. It consists of 2 streets (Highgate Walk and Highgate Crescent) which are coiled around a small playground, Highgate Walk Playground. It’s small but pretty decent in size since it really only serves 2 streets.
As you can see, Google reviewers are unimpressed by the playground, mainly because of its small size. However, whilst the playground is nothing spectacular, I find the open space around it quite generous for a landed enclave of this size.There are some benches around the playground for parents to wait for their kids. Not many playground facilities, but there’s sufficient space for kids to play soccer or badminton on the green (instead of having to do so on the streets, which I’ve seen them do at other estates and is not very safe!) If you want to see a video of the Highgate Park playground, click here.As you can see, there are houses all around the playground. If you have kids, living in one of these houses would certainly be convenient but, if not, you may find noise to be an issue. (Having said that, it was not noisy when I visited, despite there being a few kids in the playground.)Some of the houses have backdates leading out to the playground, to facilitate access.There is also an outdoor gym for adults who don’t want to just sit in the shaded pavilion whilst waiting for their kids.I took this photo whilst standing under the pavilion. As you can see, privacy may be an issue here, as I have quite a clear view of some of the surrounding houses.This is your view of the playground from the pavilion – quite up close and personal so parents don’t have to worry.I was quite impressed to see that there was a defibrillator at the playground.A closer look at the playground. Something nice about it is that it’s not surrounded by high-rise buildings.And here’s a closer look at the outdoor gym offering. (As you can see from the crane in the background, there is a construction project nearby.)I wandered out to take a look and I believe that the construction is Forrett at Bukit Timah, which is a 600+ unit condo set to be completed in 2024. It will be 5-storeys high, so you don’t have to worry about your views being blocked.
In case you’re wondering why there’s a Signature Park sign when the construction is for Forrett, there’s a back gate to the Signature Park condo in between Highpark and Forrett. This is for ease of access to the bus stop here, but there are only 2 buses that stop on this route: 41 and 77. The bright side is that Toh Tuck Road is not a very busy road, so you don’t get a lot of road noise.
As mentioned, Toh Tuck Road isn’t too busy so it’s not too difficult to turn in/out of the landed estate. (We’re looking towards Burgundy Estate here.)
Across Toh Tuck Road is Bukit Timah Primary School, the closest Primary School to Highgate. There is also a small row of shophouses at Eng Kong, where you can find a pet store, vet and Baker and Cook (among other things.)
For more shops, you can walk towards Jalan Jurong Kechil, which is about a 10 minutes walk away. There you’ll find Bukit Timah CC, the Toh Yi HDB estate, where there are some coffee houses and shops.
This is what you see if you walk all the way down to Jalan Jurong Kechil. (Highgate to my left, and Jalan Jurong Kechil to my right.)Bukit Timah CC. If you walk/drive down the road to the left of the photo, you’ll reach Highgate Park.A temporary car park and the Toh Yi HDB estate across from Bukit Timah CC.
Cross Jalan Jurong Kechil and you find many more shophouses with eateries, massage places etc
There’s a Spanish restaurant, Japanese eatery, coffee shop and Ya Hua Bak Kut Teh immediately across the road. (Ya Hua will be moving to the HDB estate next month I believe.)
If you walk into Hoover Park estate behind these shophouses, there are many more commercial shops and eateries. (The area is something like a Little Korea, with many Korean shops and eateries.) Walk that far and you’ll pretty much have reached Beauty World MRT, which is about 16 minute’s walk from the estate. (Beauty World is the closest MRT to Highgate. I’ve seen property ads claiming that the estate is near Bukit Batok MRT but since that’s a 40+ minute walk away……)
Shophouses on the left, Beauty World in front and MRT on the right. Honestly, I think the MRT is a bit far from the estate to be considered within walking distance (even though Google Maps says it’s 16 minutes away, it felt longer than that.)
Anyway, we’ve walked quite a good bit away now, so let’s head back to the actual Highgate estate!
Along the way, we pass the back gate to Signature Park that I mentioned previously. Both times I passed by, it was pretty quiet, which I found surprising given how many units the condo has.After the back gate is the MapleBear Preschool.Standing along Toh Tuck Road and looking into Highgate, this is what I see (i.e. the houses are separated from the main road by quite a large area.)Standing at the entrance to Highgate, this is your view (terrace houses in front.)Not to be rude, but several of the houses along Toh Tuck Road look like they need a bit of sprucing up. (This is similar to what I saw at Island Country Villas so I wonder if it’s because of the proximity to the forest?)
In comparison, the houses in Highgate look much better kept (see below.)
A row of houses in Highgate Park.Walk past the preschool and into Highgate and we see this sign. Not sure if I wasn’t observant enough, but I don’t recall seeing such signs at the utility areas in other landed estates?If you want to know what the life saving rules are, here they are. As shown above, the preschool is right next to this “hazardous area!”Crossed the road and zoomed out a bit so you can better see the pre-school. The hazardous sign is just past the pink gate on the left edge of the photo.Walking deeper into the estate.Another row of houses in the estate – if you compare this with the previous photo of houses that I showed, you’ll notice that the houses have different structures. However, they have a pleasantly homogenous look, so the area doesn’t look too “messy.”Although there are one or two units with alterations, on the whole, the houses all look like they belong in the same estate.Mostly pastel-coloured. The houses were built in the 90s and they do have that “90s look.”Most only have space to park one car, but some of the houses can fit two.Albeit, some have to park their cars in a straight line.On the note of parking, I must say that whilst the roads were not cluttered and one can drive through fairly easily, it was not easy to find a space to park in this neighbourhood. (You can’t park in the empty space shown above because your car will block the entrance of the car opposite.)No space to park here either! See what I mean about parking being in short supply? And this was on a regular day! I wouldn’t want to be a visitor here during the festive period. (You can’t park on the other side despite the dotted white line, because of the double yellow line.)Again, no place to park here. Since the closest residential properties on the same side of the road as Highgate are condos, visitors who can’t find a space here would have to cross Toh Tuck Road and park at the residential area across (Toh Tuck Place etc.)As previously mentioned, there aren’t very tall buildings in the vicinity. This photo shows Signature Park in the background and, although the condo is taller than the landed properties, it’s not so tall that it feels oppressive. (I believe Signature Park is currently the tallest building that is close to Highgate.)Last look at the houses in the area.
Before we go, let’s have a look at the Master Plan of the area.
As you can see, Highgate is 1 of 2 small landed estates on this side of Toh Tuck Road that is surrounded by 2 huge plots of reserve land and large condos, all of which have a fairly low plot ratio (i.e. you don’t have to worry about them turning into towering buildings.)
The two large reserve plots are interesting as they could represent potential upgrades to the area in the future. (No guarantee, of course! However, currently, there are a lot of residential properties in the area, so it’s not absurd to think that these may be developed into infrastructure to support the area.)
Being so close to open space, there is always the issue of wildlife in Singapore. I didn’t see any monkeys or boars whilst walking around but given how close the houses are to two ginormous reserve plots/ “forests,” I wouldn’t be surprised if wildlife is an issue here. (A feeling reinforced by the signs I saw on the dustbins!) Another street in this area – Yuk Tong Avenue – recently made the news for being “terrorised” by monkeys. And Yuk Tong Avenue isn’t even as close to the forest as Highgate!
One of the condos, Highgate, actually wraps around the landed estate, so it serves as a sort of narrow buffer between the wildlife/“forest” and the landed houses. (On the note of Highgate, it previously attempted to en bloc around 2018. Unsuccessfully, of course, but if it succeeds going forward, residents of this landed enclave will have a major construction project right next door.)
This brings us to the end of today’s tour – how did you find Highgate Park?
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
Thank you for your beautiful article on Highgate. In your article, you ref 2 vacant plots of land beside Highgate condominium, may I know what is the area size of both plots of land, & the present intended usage of these 2 plots of land.
TJ
9 min read
Thank you for your beautiful article on Highgate. In your article, you ref 2 vacant plots of land beside Highgate condominium, may I know what is the area size of both plots of land, & the present intended usage of these 2 plots of land.