When you talk about landed living around Beauty World in District 21, everyone thinks about Toh Tuck Estate, but did you know that there is another landed enclave nearby called Hoover Park?
In my opinion, Hoover Park is a much more comfortable estate to live in than Toh Tuck. To find out why and to decide for yourself (since everyone likes different things in a landed estate) join me on my walkabout below! (No landed estate is perfect, and there are some things I don’t like about the area too, which I’ll say more about below.)
If you’re not familiar with the area, here’s where it is on the map: it’s basically in between Bukit Timah Community Centre, Bukit Timah Market & Food Centre, Beauty World MRT, and Beauty World Shopping Centre. As such, it has all the amenities one would need within walking distance (one of the reasons why I like this estate so much.) Since a huge part of the appeal is the amenities, we’ll spend more time looking at them today (instead of just looking at the houses.)
Another aspect I like about the area is the sizeable park/playground in the middle. However, not all parks remain as such in Singapore, so let’s check the Master Plan to check the zoning. (It is, so it should still be around for the next few years.)
As you can see, whilst the estate is fairly large, it’s much smaller than the area around Toh Tuck, which is so big, that I can’t cover all the roads in a single walkabout. (This also means that there are fewer cars driving into Hoover Estate.
Let’s start by looking at the area around the park.
This is the entrance to the park. As shown above, it’s surrounded by terrace houses.This is the street next to the park – your visiting friends and family can park there (no shortage of space when I visited, but it may be a different story in the evening when people go to the nearby restaurants and need parking.)Behind the sign, the park lies on slightly higher land. I normally don’t like to live next to the playground as the noise levels can be horrific when the kids come home from school. However, because the playground here is so large, the surrounding houses aren’t actually that near the play area, as compared to the typical landed estate.See what I mean about all the space and the distance from the houses?Not sure about the community spirit here, but the event above is a good sign.The playground is elevated enough to require a short flight of steps to get up to it.This is what it looks like when I’m standing at street level.I really like how there’s this small path for pedestrians next to the houses.One of the houses near the playground that I like the look of – also note the scope for rebuilding. It towers over its older neighbour to the right.We’ve seen enough of the playground now, so let’s walk around the houses.Standing outside the closest row of houses and looking at the playground – this is the setback from it. As you can see, it’s hardly noticeable from here.There was a fair bit of construction going on in the estate. (Some of the houses were old.)You can park on quite a few streets in the estate – this was during work hours (i.e. many people would have driven their cars to work.) The streets weren’t empty but there was no issue finding parking.Now do you believe me when I say the estate is on elevated land? (A plus point, in my opinion, as there will be more wind and light.) Luckily there are other, less steep ways to get up to the houses! I wouldn’t fancy climbing up these stairs every day!Thanks to the elevation, some of the houses near the top get quite a nice unblocked view.Like many landed estates, there is a preschool within it. This is Adventure Tree Preschool, along Yuk Tong Avenue. (There were at least 3 kids’ schools that I saw in the estate.) A preschool next to landed houses is NOT one of my favourite things due to the noise. Thankfully, Yuk Tong Avenue is next to Cheong Chin Nam Road (where you find lots of shophouses and restaurants) so the noise is hopefully “concentrated” in one part of the estate.Lo and behold, as we get closer to the shophouses, we start seeing dustbins and chairs used to “chope” parking space.I was surprised by the number of older, single-storey homes within the estate, something I didn’t really see in Toh Tuck.See what I mean about the bins?A one-storey house in between its 3 or 4-storey neighbours.I really like the brick facade on the right! The windows are quite small so I wonder if the house is dark inside, but there’s probably a skylight in the middle?This brings us to Chun Tin Court, a walk-up apartment with shops below. We’re also only a stone’s throw from Beauty World MRT now.An alley separates the houses.That’s Chun Tin Court’ in the background, and the shophouses are in the foreground. There’s also a huge open space car park next to Chun Tin Court so its views are currently unblocked. However, the land is zoned ‘commercial and residential” as well as “subject to detailed planning” so you’ll never know what’s going to be your neighbour. View of the restaurants. This area is almost like Koreatown (after Tanjong Pagar) and you’ll find a lot of Korean shops and restaurants here. Such as the fried chicken place on the left!The open-air car park I mentioned, with the MRT in the background.There’s a sheltered walkway from the MRT, but it doesn’t bring you all the way into the landed estate.Here’s a photo to show you how close the houses and shops are.
This brings me to one thing I do NOT like about the estate: monkeys! According to a resident of the neighbourhood, it can get so bad that “residents feel like prisoners in their own homes” according to the Stomp article I linked to, since 2022, there have been 50 feedback cases about monkeys near the MRT. (The article was written in April 2023.)
Now I didn’t see any monkeys during my walkabout, but I wasn’t surprised, given the proximity to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the number of potential food sources in the area. Having said that, I’m not sure if the monkeys are an issue for the houses deeper within the estate, or if the area is just concentrated around this part.
When we walk to the bottom of the street, that’s the MRT on the right and Beauty World across the road. It’s quite an old-school place, so not many exciting shops but it’s functional with a supermarket (Giant) and the like. Let’s walk back up now and to the other end of the open-air car park. (We’re looking at the street we just walked down from here.)There’s an international college here. (There’s also Pei Hwa Primary School within 1 km of some of the houses in the Hoover estate, and Methodist Girls’ School a little further down.)Two places of worship along this stretch (a temple and monastery) – some people say places of worship can be noisy. (It’s not been an issue the various times I’ve visited.)The covered walkway comes all the way to this stretch of the road.From here, let’s go down to Lorong Kilat, where you will find more shops, such as a reflexology place, Udders Ice Cream, and more Korean restaurants.There is very limited parking here (and the open-air car park is often full) so I won’t be surprised if the visitors spill into the landed estate to find parking space during peak hours.See what I mean about how the area is overflowing with amenities? Behind me, there’s even a small kopitiam, Chicken House, for those who don’t want to walk all the way to the hawker centre. It’s next to a small Korean grocery store.Interesting building that we pass along the way.With more shops on the opposite side.Close-up of the terrace houses opposite.Backed up so you can see the width of the road.More shops…Still more shops… At the very end of the street, you can see a staircase that will bring you back up to the houses.
Via the staircase, we can climb up to Chun Tin Road from Lorong Kilat, so let’s head that way.
There is a very small stretch of commercial units here again, with a pet store and maths centre.It’s next to the Meadow Lodge condo.Oh in case you wanted to see exactly how much higher Chun Tin Road is compared to Lorong Kilat, here you go.There’s even a letterbox at the top of the staircase!We’ve spent most of our time looking at the amenities in the area, and there are still some more that I’ve not shown! So let’s quickly look at some of the houses. As previously mentioned, there are a good number of single-storey homes in this neighbourhood. Close-up of a single-storey home.Many houses have not been rebuilt, so they have fairly large car porches. If they get replaced with bigger houses in future, with less outside space, there may be more spillover of cars to the streets.As the land is sloping, some houses have a sort of terraced effect and you need to climb a staircase to get to your property, which may be an issue for older people or families which use buggies.See how there is a staircase leading to the front door of this house? (The driveway of the one on the right slopes up too.)This may give you a better idea of the slope.Some of the streets within the estate.Some pretty sloping too, as you can see. (But not many.)Perhaps due to the sloping land, some properties have basement levels.I think the property on the left is the biggest one I saw during this walkabout.Unusual architecture…You can see all the way to the HDB blocks from here.
Actually, you can even walk down to the HDB blocks, where you’ll find Bukit Timah CC, and MORE restaurants, so let’s go take a look!
Head down Tham Soong Avenue then Jalan Seh Chun and you’ll reach Jalan Jurong Kechil.(The houses here all look quite big and modern.)When you walk out to the main road, there are more shops, restaurants, a kopitiam (across the road) and Bukit Timah CC.This is quite a busy area, but I didn’t hear the traffic from inside the estate when I was there.The HDB flats across the road (some maisonettes) along with a small open-air car park.There’s a small Ya Hua Bak But Teh (which has since shifted across the road.)Dental practice.Medical.More shops, including an “atas” cheese shop and a Western restaurant (behind me.)The CC across the road.A huge play school. (Just describing the amenities this estate has is making this one of my longest articles ever for Stacked!)Lorong Kilat is one of three ways to enter/exit Hoover estate from Jalan Jurong Kechil. I was quite impressed, given that the estate isn’t particularly big.Looking into the estate.Coffee shops, Japanese restaurant etc…This is the street across Jalan Jurong Kechil, which leads you to Toh Tuck, Eng Kong and Cheng Soon Gardens, which I visited previously.
Let’s continue down Jalan Jurong Kechil, so you can see one of the other exits/entrances to Hoover estate.
This is the second exit/entrance to Hoover estate. There’s a bus stop here, and some houses along the main road.Personally, I find it very stressful to live along a main road (noise, the difficulty driving in and out…) However, one good thing is that the houses here have a slightly longer driveway, so there’s more leeway for you when manoeuvring in and out.And here’s the walkway back in – it’s shaded too as you can see!
We’ve now seen almost everything around this estate, with the exception of the famous Ameen Makan House along Cheong Chin Nam Road, there is a whole stretch of Zi-chars and other restaurants there, some of which are quite famous.
There’s even a medical centre!
Now that we’ve toured the entire estate, how did you find it? Do you agree with me that it has a very comprehensive range of amenities? If you can think of a better-equipped landed estate (except maybe Serangoon Gardens), do let me know in the comments as I would love to go for a tour of it!
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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