A reader requested more Bukit Timah tours, without specifying exactly which landed enclave. Sixth Avenue covers a huge part of Bukit Timah, but we’ve only seen Namly and Ming Teck park so far. Hence, today, I thought we would visit Lantana Avenue, Lasia Avenue, Lemon Avenue, and Lily Avenue!
Sixth Avenue is a major road connecting Bukit Timah Road and Holland Road, and this cluster of Avenues that start with L are closer to the Bukit Timah Road-end (which is also where you can find more amenities. On the Holland Road side, there’s really only Cold Storage Jelita within walking distance.) There are a few rows of shophouses along Bukit Timah Road, where you can find restaurants, cafes such as Toast Box and Bread Talk, a pet shop, and a spa. At Guthrie House, there’s even a small Cold Storage. Best of all, similar to Binjai Park, there’s also a kopitiam where you can find hawker food such as wanton mee, roast meat, and nasi lemak.
From Lily Avenue (the road closest to Bukit Timah Road), it’s only a 6 minute walk to Sixth Avenue MRT and only 9 minutes from Lantana Avenue (the road furthest from the MRT.) All in all, for a landed enclave, this area is pretty convenient! (We’ll see some of the shops later.)
As shown above, the roads here are not too cluttered, and street side parking is relatively easy to find.Quite a lot of room to expand one’s house here.Let’s take a quick walk down to Sixth Avenue to see what it’s like.It’s usually quite busy- and can be rather jammed during peak hours- but not too bad when I took this photo.Looking down the other direction of Sixth Avenue.Lantana Avenue forms 2 perpendicular roads, which are the closest to the busy Sixth Avenue (and thus would get the most road noise, although I did not find the traffic particularly loud.) It’s also where you find more of the bigger houses (semi-Ds.)At the junction of Lantana Avenue and Lotus Avenue is a PATS schoolhouse.Once again, nice and clear roads, but mind you this isn’t the school drop-off/ pick-up hour.Since we’re in Bukit Timah, it’s no surprise that there are several modern and nicely built properties.Here’s the price history of Lantana Avenue for your reference. Don’t worry, the transacted prices for the other streets will be lower (almost half) when we get to the terrace units!When we reach Lasia Avenue, it becomes a combination of terrace and semi-Ds. On one end, Lasia Avenue is connected to Garlick Avenue where we find larger detached houses, and on the other, it’s elevated above the parallel street, which should technically make it more spacious. However, note that the street can get pretty cluttered with parked cars.Lasia Avenue.David and Goliath.Around 50-70 Lasia Avenue, the houses are elevated above Eden Park and Maple Lane, giving the houses along this stretch a marvellously unblocked view.I would love to live on a street elevated a park like this! No need to worry about the neighbour opposite peeking into your house!However, as the street is shaped like an inverted “7” (i.e. has a sharp bend), it can feel very cluttered when people park on the streets. (I’ve visited this area a few times and it can be a bit tricky to navigate when the streets are full.)All clear today though!
After we turn round the bend, Lasia Avenue then bisects Lotus Avenue, again a mix of terrace and semi-D houses, with the odd detached unit. However, before we walk down this way, I’d like to show you 2 things:
The transacted prices for Lotus Avenue and Lasia Avenue
The Garlick Avenue end of Lasia Avenue so that you can see why I pointed it out as a desirable feature of the area.
As promised, you can find last transacted prices here that are about half that of the ones at Lantana Avenue (around 5 million vs 9 million- not that 5 million is a small sum, of course. However, if you’re (freehold) house hunting in the Bukit Timah Area, then you shouldn’t be surprised by those numbers.)
On to Garlick Avenue now.
As you can see, Garlick Avenue has lovely large houses, which makes the area feel less congested. (Next 3 photos also of Garlick Avenue.)I’m not doing an in-depth tour of the Garlick Avenue side, as the price point is very different from that of the Lantana/ Lily/ Lotus/ Lemon area. However, I’m showing the odd house or two so that you can get a feel of the area.
And now for the piece-de-resistance: Garlick Lookout Point.
If you wander down the meandering Garlick Avenue, you’ll soon come to this humongous piece of open green space.
I must confess, before I came to this park, I was thinking that I might have chosen the wrong area to tour for this series, as there didn’t seem to be anything very interesting about it. (Unlike Jurong Park, for example, it doesn’t have its own badminton court. Neither is it as quiet as Woodlands Park.) However, the view and space here made it worth it.
Can you imagine having this view from your house?There’s even a staircase to connect you to Holland Green Linear Park Playground and the houses below. (The linear park connects to the Rail Corridor.)
Best of all, part of it is also zoned as a park so you won’t get more buildings replacing it! (in the near future at least.)
Note that you’re also overlooking Fong Yun Thai Association and that some people find temples noisy (no noise heard when I was visiting.)
OK now that we’ve seen what, in my opinion, is the best part of this estate, let’s go tour the remaining streets.
Lemon Avenue.Lily Avenue is where the houses border Royal Green condominium. (It’s zoned 1.4 so you shouldn’t get taller buildings obstructing your airflow and light. However, note that Sixth Avenue Centre is zoned 3.0 and Fifth Avenue Condominium 1.62, though those 2 buildings are not immediately next to the Lantana/ Lily/ Lotus/ Lemon/ Lasia enclave.)Lily Avenue is also the closest street to the amenities ( coffee shop, MRT etc) so let’s walk over that way.As shown, Lily Avenue is so close to the shops that you can see them, from the start of the street. The bright umbrellas are where you can find the hawker food, and the building behind is Guthrie House (with Cold Storage.)One downside is that there are not many parking spaces at the kopitiam so the cars could spill over and park at the landed estate.Now that we’ve seen the shops, let’s walk back to the houses.Sixth Avenue is not a flat road, so some parts of the landed estate are set on higher ground than others (as we saw at Lasia Avenue.)This is probably a better illustration of the sloping land.Or this? It’s nice how there’s a staircase to bring you down to the main road too, so you don’t have to make a big round!
We’ve seen pretty much the entire estate now, but before we go, here are the last transacted prices for Lily Avenue and Lemon Avenue.
Note that Lily Avenue has several detached houses too.
Now that we’ve seen the area, how did you find it? Do you have a particular street among the lot?
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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