A few articles ago, a reader asked for a tour of Cheng Soon Gardens, an estate in the Toh Tuck vicinity- but I’ve already written about it a year ago! Hence, I decided to do a tour of another landed enclave close to Cheng Soon Gardens instead: Toh Tuck Place. Toh Tuck Place is across the road from Highgate estate, and next to Bukit Timah Primary School, Toh Tuck Forest, and Eng Kong Place.
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Here’s a map to better help you envisage it.As you can see, the forest is a large plot of reserve land, so it may not stay green and open forever. However, (most of) Toh Tuck Place is located on much higher land than the forest, so the houses here will enjoy the benefits of a more elevated position (generally, being located on higher ground is associated with more light and more wind/better ventilation.)Looking towards the main road: houses on one side, greenery on the other.Turning 180 degrees and looking deeper into the estate.Can you see how the land behind the bus is much lower lying?We see quite a bit of traffic here for an interior road (a road inside an estate, not a main road). The bus you see is the only one that goes through this part of the estate: 173 - it will take you to Beauty World MRT station, the closest station.Across from the bus stop is the entrance to Toh Tuck Crescent, one of the two main streets here (the other is Toh Tuck Place), so let’s head down that way.Toh Tuck Crescent. Note the dust bins reserving parking spaces - I had no problem finding a space, but that was because everyone was at work!Several of the houses have steps up to their main entrance (probably because of the sloping land). If you have very young or very old family members, this could be a trip hazard.On the bright side, there is some room for houses to be redeveloped and built higher, as shown above.More dustbins.The terrace houses in the front are the older ones - you can see they’re quite a bit shorter than the newer white house at the end.
This is reflected in the selling prices: at the time of writing, the asking prices ranged from $ 6 million to $8.5 million (both for semi-Ds, the only difference was in the age of the property.) There were no terrace houses on the market at the time of writing, with only 3 properties in Toh Tuck Place listed.)
Off Toh Tuck Crescent is a short cul-de-sac, Toh Tuck Close.Terrace houses of Toh Tuck Close.Some renovation work being carried out.Still looking down Toh Tuck Close.Walked all the way in - the houses at the end look older than the properties we’ve seen so far.Behind Toh Tuck Close are The Beverly Condo and Bukit Timah Primary School (but there is no throughway here.)Exiting Toh Tuck Close, this is the pedestrian path - it’s a bit narrow and difficult to walk on. (This part of the road is quite a sharp curve, so walking on the pavement is much safer.)
If you turn and follow Toh Tuck Crescent to the end, you’ll reach the main road: Toh Tuck Road. This is one of four ways you can enter/exit the estate, so it’s pretty convenient! (The four ways are via Toh Tuck Rise, Toh Tuck Place, Toh Tuck Crescent, and Lorong Kismis.)
We’re going to turn into Toh Tuck Place for now, so we won’t walk all the way to Toh Tuck Road for now.
From Toh Tuck Place, looking at Toh Tuck Crescent - I think those houses should be the ones along Toh Tuck Close that we saw earlier. As you can see, they are quite a bit higher than where we are currently standing and are single-loading. (No parallel row of houses behind them.)More opportunities to build larger properties here too, as shown above.From the beginning of Toh Tuck Place, still looking towards Toh Tuck Crescent.Now turning and looking at the opposite directions, towards Toh Tuck Rise, and the forest.Straight on view of the houses so you can get a better view.
We’ll walk out of Toh Tuck Place, onto Toh Tuck Rise, and turn left, to head deeper into the estate.
We pass Toh Tuck Crescent (the road opposite the bus stop that we saw previously) and reach Toh Tuck Walk. The houses here feel more open than the ones we saw earlier.Taking a quick peek into Toh Tuck Walk.As you can see, the houses are not too different from the ones we saw at Toh Tuck Place earlier, so let’s continue walking down Toh Tuck Rise, instead of turning into Toh Tuck Walk. (The two roads will eventually merge anyway.)Walk past the turn-in to Toh Tuck Walk and we see this open, green expanse. Lovely.At the end, the road merges with Lorong Kismis and we see something that looks like a plant shop, which is quite weird, since we’re rather deep in the estate. Let’s head closer to take a look.Ah it’s actually a community garden!Next to it is this playground - the only one we’ve seen on our tour so far. (If you continue along Lorong Kismis, you’ll reach a second, larger playground: Eng Kong playground.)The rides are nothing special but it’s nice to have such a wide walking path around it.The houses across Lorong Kismis Road, facing the playground. Again, more opportunities to build higher. (Or more noise and dust in the future, when your neighbours redevelop - depends on how you look at it!)We pass Kimis Place, a cul-de-sac off Lorong Kismis, and next to the playground.The houses deeper inside the estate are definitely larger and grander than the ones closer to Toh Tuck Road.Continuing down Lorong Kismis, walking slightly uphill.Turned into Toh Tuck Walk - see what I mean about bigger houses?Another characteristic of this estate is the drains in between some of the rows of houses - this helps to increase the setback between properties.And, as highlighted previously, the land slopes - I think this is the best illustration of exactly how much difference there can be in the position of two neighbouring houses!Again, more room to build higher - you may have observed that the majority of this estate consists of older properties that have not maximised the plot ratio.Toh Tuck Walk is a through road shaped like a 7, so here, we’ll turn left. (The row of houses behind is Toh Tuck Crescent FYI, so 2 or 3 houses on Toh Tuck Crescent will have unblocked backyards, as they will be facing Toh Tuck Walk directly.)At the end is the forest, and also where Toh Tuck Walk meets Toh Tuck Rise - we took a photo there earlier on. We’ll take a right turn and head out to the main Toh Tuck Road.Walking along Toh Tuck Rise - houses to my right, forest to my left, Toh Tuck Road ahead.When I visited, road works were being done at the entrance of Toh Tuck Rise - I was impressed to see that there were people allocated to directing traffic to ease the traffic flow.Here’s the turn in from the main road (Toh Tuck Road.) The house at the right top corner is for sale - I’ll include a photo of the agent’s details in case anyone is interested. For sale sign/agent’s details.Turn right and you’ll eventually reach Jalan Jurong Kechil and Beauty World, but it’s quite a distance away, about a 20-minute walk. I recommend taking the bus instead. There are more bus stops along this stretch, and buses 41 and 77 stop here.
One thing you may have noticed is that we’re pretty far from amenities (shops, restaurants, and the like.) The main area for that would be Jalan Jurong Kechil/Beauty World. Alternatively, there is also a small stretch of shophouses at Eng Kong, which includes a provision shop, Baker and Cook, open shop, barber etc
Looking to the left.
In the opposite direction i.e. to the left instead of to the right) is mainly an industrial estate, so no shops. There are a few good eateries though, such as Laifaba (Wanton Noodles. But generally, residents of Toh Tuck will be more likely to head towards Beauty World for recreation than in the Bukit Batok direction. Unless they want to drive a little further, which would bring them to the Jurong East Westgate-IMM-Jem shopping area which has so many shops it’s like Orchard in the heartlands. (You can even find Ikea and Sephora there.)
And that brings us to the end of today’s walkabout. How did you find Toh Tuck Place? Let me know in the comments! See you again next week.
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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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