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Touring Woodlands Park: Cheaper Freehold Landed Living From $900 Psf With Unblocked Greenery Views
Published 7 Jan 2024 |
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BY TJPublished 7 Jan 20240 comments | 9min 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
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A while back, I wrote about a windy landed estate and a reader suggested that I should check out Jalan Bumbong, as he felt that it was quite similar. It took me a while to get there, as Jalan Bumbong is VERY far out, I felt like I was almost driving to Malaysia!
First things first: the location. As I mentioned, Woodlands Park estate isn’t for the person who likes to be in the centre of things. It’s similar to Clementi Crescent, which we toured last week, in that it’s extremely private: there are no other houses around it, so the houses located on the periphery of the estate will have unblocked greenery views.
Even when looking at single-story houses, the expanse behind them is unblocked. You might see trees, but you don’t see taller buildings popping up behind to block the light or airflow.Perhaps this gives you a better idea of exactly how lush the surroundings are.
The flip side of that is, of course, the lack of amenities. I think this must be the most “off-the-grid” estate that I’ve visited!
Here’s the Master plan to give you a better idea: the houses are surrounded by reserve land, land subject to detailed planning and a river (Sungei Pang Sea, behind which is Industrial land.) Not a mall or shop in sight!
Note: Kranji War Memorial (and cemetery) is located on the neighbouring land.
Public transport is also limited. To enjoy living here, you would really need a car. Whilst Kanji Mart is an 11-minute bus ride or 3-minute car ride away, it will take you 1 hour and 52 minutes to walk there, according to Google Maps. (3 buses can take you there: 178, 960, and 961.)
There is a bus stop right by the entrance of the estate – depending on where you stay in Woodlands Park, the walk could be about 12 minutes (partially downhill.)
Looking to the right of the entrance to the landed estate (not a car or person in sight) see what I mean about this estate being remote? (There is a much smaller cluster of landed houses at Rasok Drive to the right but it’s far enough that we can’t see it from here.)A lone van to the left.Sign marking the entrance of the estate.Nothing to see or walk to along the main road, so let’s head back in. Note that it’s an uphill walk from the bus stop. (i.e. the houses are located on elevated land, which is always nice.)Looking back so you can get an idea of how steep the slope is.I was surprised by how nice the pathway up is. As you can see the surrounding greenery is very well-maintained. It’s a nice walk home if you live here.You’re high enough, and it’s empty enough, that nothing is blocking your view.There’s a small covered area (might have been an old bus stop) but I don’t believe public buses enter the estate anymore.I’ll be honest – when I saw how secluded the estate was, the safety aspect did cross my mind. There is a sign warning people to be careful here.
Let’s do a quick Google search to see if there’s any news about crime in the area. I googled every street in the estate but, at the time of writing, there were no search results for crime in the area. (Having said that, Google search hasn’t been the best lately – as you may or may not know, when I’m not writing for Stacked, I’m writing for my food blog greedygirlgourmet.com and alovelettertoasia.com, so it’s my job to keep on top of SEO trends, and Google’s non-stop search algorithm updates in 2023 has been the talk of the blogger-verse for months.)
Reached the first houses of the estate – have you noticed how there’s an extraordinary number of single-level homes here? One reason is that the plots are on the larger side, so not many people feel the need to build upwards.Passed a sign about a Heritage Walk. Not all the landed estates I’ve visited have signs for communal events. This is definitely one of the better ones (there’s a lot of practical information about the event on the sign.) I wonder if this means there’s a strong community spirit in the estate? (We did see a few people on their morning walks, and they were quite friendly. No one asked if we had recently moved in though – I would have thought that, in a small and secluded estate like Woodlands Park, strangers would stick out like a sore thumb. But maybe everyone was just too polite to ask?)More houses.As shown above, there’s no shortage of street-side parking, and some of the residents love gardening. It does create some very pretty common areas.Although the area is far-flung, it seems to be pretty popular, as evidenced by the number of construction projects I saw when walking about.Because the streets aren’t very busy and are quite broad, they’re wide enough for residents to play on the streets. (Although the estate has a huge park so there’s really no need to – I’ll show you the park in a bit.)See what I mean about your friends and family never having to worry about finding space to park?Another construction project – also evidence of how much more the plot ratio can be maximised!As mentioned previously, there are A LOT of original condition/single-storey homes in this neighbourhood.More examples. And another.One feature of these older houses is that they have more outside space (because the houses are typically not built as close to the gate as the more modern ones.)Of course, there are several taller properties here too. Interesting colour.More redeveloped units.These remind me of Bukit Timah.Gorgeous setting. I wonder how long it takes for the tree to grow so bushy.This is as crowded as the road ever gets.From a distance, this looked like an art installation but is more proof of the residents’ love of gardening. (Fruit tree.)These are the most contemporary-looking houses in the neighbourhood.As pictured, the parts of the estate which have newer houses are less spacious (the houses are built closer to each other.)
We could spend all day looking at the properties, but I think you’ve gotten the general idea by now, so let’s look at the public spaces.
The last time URA moved to curb shoebox units (one-bedder units, generally defined as 510 sq. ft. or smaller) was…
Ryan J ·
19 Oct 2022 ·
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As mentioned earlier, Woodlands Park estate has a HUGE playground – look you can’t even see the houses in the photo! (They line the playground.)And it’s quite fancy too – there is a ball court! (Something quite rare, I’ve only seen it in a handful of landed tours.)There’s even a large covered area.And a drop-off for you to recycle your e-waste and earn rewards. Look at this huge covered space with a fan! I think this is the only such space I’ve seen on all my landed tours!More communal events. Always nice to live somewhere with a village feel.The neighbourhood committee even has their own space, so looks like they are fairly active.The space even has tables and chairs!View of the court from the covered area.More green space, a walking path, and then finally the houses. Normally I don’t like living near a playground because, if you’re unlucky, the noise can be horrific when the kids are out and about. However, this one looks large enough to make it bearable.There’s even art in the public space! Reminds me of Fuyong estate.Houses across the road from the public space.The road bordering the public space.There’s also exercise equipment for adults.Spaces to sit, albeit uncovered.If you squint, you can make out the houses in the distance, behind the playground.One of the houses nearby: remember what I said about the houses here having more outdoor space? You could almost fit another house in all that land shown above!Another thing I like about the estate is the broad pavements – easy to walk on, or maybe even wheel a wheelchair. (Some estates have such terrible pavements you have no choice but to walk on the road.)
This brings us to the end of today’s tour. How did you find it? Personally, I found it just a bit too far out for me, although I did enjoy how green, quiet and spacious it was, as well as the fantastic public spaces. One thing to note is that the Singapore Turf Club is very close by. The land is going to be redeveloped into housing and other developments, which could provide a boost to the area and add some much-needed amenities. It will, apparently, “support the ongoing development of the Woodlands Regional Centre, which is earmarked as the largest economic hub in Singapore’s north region.” Hence, for those with a longer time horizon, the Woodlands Park estate may be an interesting option to consider.
Hope you enjoyed today’s tour and let me know in the comments if there’s another enclave you’d like covered!
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
