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Touring Inglewood: Affordable Freehold Landed Homes From $3.6m That Looks Like An English Village (With A Secret Garden)
Published 12 Nov 2023 |
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10min read
BY TJPublished 12 Nov 20230 comments | 10min read
BY TJ
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
I’ve visited the Thomson area several times, covering Windsor Park and Thomson Ridge, among other areas. Today, I thought it would be nice to cross (the very busy) Upper Thomson Road and tour Inglewood instead! Inglewood is slightly different from the other estates we’ve seen in this area in that it has a very uniform look: all the houses look very similar to what you see above, making the area feel much neater.
Secondly, it’s also more “heartland” than the other landed estates. With Windsor Park, Thomson Ridge, and even Teacher’s Estate further up, we see mostly landed houses, so everything is kept pretty private. Inglewood, on the other hand, is almost directly opposite HDB flats and a short walk from Bright Hill MRT (about 12 minutes walk as the roads are winding.)
Here is the turn into the Inglewood estate – you can see the Sin Ming HDB blocks to the left of the photo. (I believe there are some very nice Executive Maisonettes in that area too!) Separating the houses from the HDB is a condo, Thomson Impressions.If you turn around, with the houses behind you, this is what you see: another 2 condos (Country Grandeur and Country Esquire), with more HDB blocks in the background.
Since I mentioned the proximity of the HDB (and since the houses in the estate are quite uniform) let’s do a quick tour of the area outside the estate before heading in.
We immediately pass Thomson Impressions condo.To the left is a very green and open area. (We have to walk slightly uphill here to get to the main road. Upper Thomson Road on the right, Bright Hill MRT on the left.)Right after we pass the condo, we reach the HDBs – that’s how close they are to the landed houses!There’s a bus stop both on this side of the road and on the other side, serving buses 52, 162, 162M, 410 and 410G.We take a turn right – the pavement here is pretty broad as you can see.That’s the bus stop in the distance.Not really relevant to the article but FYI since we’re passing through: there’s a back gate from the condo right to the bus stop.Pass the bus stop and we’re almost at the (rather noisy) Upper Thomson Road.Not busy/noisy enough to scare off the wildlife, it seems!Now look at all those cars!!! As I mentioned previously, I was very taken with Windsor Park and Thomson Ridge (not by the price tags though!), but the traffic was quite a put-off.More cars…
OK, we’ve seen the main road now so let’s walk back to the Inglewood estate.
We turn right here: ahead is the open green space I mentioned earlier. It makes the area feel a lot nicer in my opinion! But will a new development pop up on the land? Let’s have a look at the masterplan:Unfortunately, based on the Master Plan shown above, the open space is zoned residential so it may not stay open and green for long, sad to say… (Note there’s also a plot of reserve land across the road so you may see some major construction projects in the area.)Turned right and walked to The Inglewood.Lots of smoke from the condo opposite. Maybe fogging? Although I’ve never seen it that colour before…We turn right again, into the Inglewood estate, and this is what we are greeted by: rubbish bins used to reserve parking space on the road. (And yes it was almost impossible to find street parking in the estate. There was only one space available in the entire, albeit not too big, estate! On public holidays, your friends and family may have to park in the HDB across the road.)As mentioned, all the houses were constructed in the same style and none have been rebuilt, so the area looks homogeneous and neat. The mock-tutor style makes it a little like a small and sunny English village.Or at least that’s the impression you have till you turn around and see the high-rise buildings behind the houses! Thankfully they’re not that close, so they don’t loom over the houses too much.This is what the street parking situation is like: it’s a dotted white line so you can park on the street IF you can find a space!Luckily you can park one car on your porch, or two, if you open the gate and don’t mind jutting out a bit (see previous photo.)This is about as different as the houses get (the house on the right has knocked down the porch’s roof and made it into a balcony.)The estate is so small, it pretty much consists of houses going round in a loop. (The loop turns to the right in the background of the photo.)
Now, in my Seletar Hills tour, I moaned about how difficult was to walk through the estate, given that it has narrow winding roads. The road here is also winding (since it loops), but it’s slightly easier to walk here since the shape is predictable (a circle) and the pavement is slightly wider.
This is the width of the pavement.Standing on the pavement and taking a photo of the houses opposite so you have a better idea of the setback of the houses.
I then turn 180 degrees and this is why I say the Inglewood estate is like an English village:
It has a beautiful secret garden!!!In the middle of the circle formed by the houses is this lovely green area. Now playgrounds aren’t uncommon in landed estates, but I wasn’t expecting to find anything like this in the middle of the Inglewood estate, making it seem extra beautiful!The open space is lined by houses, some with back gates opening directly onto it, which is lovely. (Also why I don’t whine about walking around here – you can easily bypass the cars by cutting through this garden!)Some houses don’t even have a real gate, making the area feel even more open. (As shown above, to the right, some of the backyards are quite large.)There is a playground and some recreational facilities here too (I assume the stones are meant to be for walking on with bare feet, for some reflexology? May be wrong!) There’s also a gazebo, shown in the previous photo, where parents or helpers can sit in the shade whilst waiting for the kids to finish playing.
That brings me to one point: I LOVED this area when I visited and found it lush, tranquil and peaceful. However, no kids were in the playground then! When the kids are out en masse, noise-sensitive people living in the surrounding houses may find it a bit too much for their comfort zone…
A better view of the back of one of the houses: although they’re terrace units, they’re fairly wide and sizeable here.View of the kid’s playground. Small and nothing too exciting, but extremely private and conveniently located.Adults have not been neglected: there is some outdoor equipment for older people here too.The previous unit shown was a corner terrace. Here’s an inter-terrace so you can see that those are not small either.Doesn’t this look lovely? All it would need to make it more country house garden-like are some colourful flowers!Exiting the playground/garden from the other side.This is where we emerge. The houses are so similar you can’t really tell the difference from where we entered! (Emptier roads as many have driven to work now.)Although this side does have some signage.What the road looks like here.Now, since the estate is so uniform, I don’t think it’s much benefit to you to show you more photos of the houses. (Showing the above as it’s changed its roof tiles to a different colour.)Instead, let’s head out to see more of the surrounding area. If you walk out, turn left and follow the road, at the end, you’ll find a Star Learners centre for kids.Walking down the road after turning left…You pass more open green space on your right. (If I read the Masterplan correctly, it’s zoned 1.6 i.e. hello future condo neighbour.)
There appears to be something set up in the green field. Looked like something related to the Leang San King Temple located across the road.
The open space here is much more vast than the one we passed earlier.Finally reached the childcare centre.The childcare centre hides a small path behind it! I turn left to see where it goes.Very quiet path.To the right is Faber Garden condo! When I reviewed Clementi Park, a friend reached out after reading it and said it reminded her of her Grandpa’s place in Faber Gardens. I see what she means now! If anything, however, Faber Garden looks even more spacious!! I think it deserves its own article/tour! What do you guys think?Look at that! I would love to live here! (Faber Garden.) Note that there have been talks of en blocs for YEARS though so this is most likely not going to be a forever home.To the left, opposite Faber Gardens, are the backgates to the Inglewood properties. The Inglewood houses are slightly elevated so you will need to climb a few steps to get in via the backgate.The road leads onto a slope.Drains to the left.More of Faber Garden to the right and further to walk in front. I am really starting to wonder where this path leads.Ah, I see! It leads to another landed estate: Island Gardens Walk, which leads out to Upper Thomson Road again.Closer view for you to see what the architecture here is like- very different from the Inglewood. Which do you prefer?And that’s the entrance of Island Gardens Walk from Upper Thomson Walk. As seen, the area is very green!
This brings us to the end of today’s tour. How did you find the area? Parents of young kids will be interested to know that The Inglewood is very close to Ai Tong Primary, a rather sought-after school (within 1 km for most of the houses.) Unfortunately, the proximity comes at a price and, at the time of writing, a corner terrace here was going for $5 million.
What did you think of the area? Let me know 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
