Singapore's property ladder still exists in 2026, but rising prices, 10-year executive condominium minimum occupation periods, and tighter financing mean…
Today, we’re off to Gilstead Road, a freehold landed estate in between Newton and Novena. If you’re not familiar with the area, Gilstead Road is a long road connecting Dunearn Road and Buckley Road, just a few metres away from Thomson Road. You might find the area familiar, as we toured Gentle Drive in the neighbourhood a few years back. Gentle Drive is a leasehold estate whilst Gilstead Road is freehold.
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If you don’t remember much about the area, here’s a map to jog your memory. You may also want to refer to the Gentle Drive article as it’s where the closest playground to Gilstead Road is located.) Before we get into the walkabout, let’s take a look at the recent sales transactions.
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As mentioned in the title, the most recent sale (at the time of writing) was for a semi-D at $4,468,888. Many terrace houses in Bukit Timah sell at almost double of this price so it definitely made me take a double look. If you look more closely at the sales data, you’ll soon see why: the house in question is a strata development. This explains the lower price. A “pure” semi-D sold for more than twice this price- $10.07 million – in 2024, and another for $17 million in 2022. Strata properties are generally not quite as popular as pure landed properties in Singapore, but you’re getting quite a “discount” for a strata property here.
Now let’s start our tour of Gisltead Road at the Dunearn Road end.
Here’s the turn into Gilstead Road from Dunearn Road. Looking to the left of the entrance, there’s a flyover not far away. This part of Dunearn Road can get quite jammed during peak hours as cars start changing lanes. You have to walk down this way, past the flyover, to get to Newton Food Centre and Newton MRT. The walk to the MRT can take between eight to 15 minutes, depending on which house you’re starting from.This is Dunearn road to the right of the entrance. I like how there’s a covered walkway here but it doesn’t extend all the way to the landed houses in Gilstead estate unfortunately.Right at the beginning of the road is a postpartum centre, which looks very fancy.It has a spa and restaurant on the premises but it’s not quite clear whether it’s a general spa/ restaurant or just a postpartum one.Next door is a church and, according to Google Maps, Far Eastern Kindergarten (which has a 4.8 review on Google.)Opposite the church is Beulah House, another religious organization. Form the website, it seems to be a Bible-Presbyterian place.There’s also a high-rise condo, Gilstead Two, here.Walking in to the heart of Gilstead Road now.This part of Gilstead Road is mainly high-rise apartments and some organisations. When I mention Newton to people, the response I generally get is “Ah, the area is quite densely occupied.” However, I must say that Gilstead Road feels quite nice and ope. Despite the many skyscrapers, it doesn’t feel like you’re in the heart of Newton at all.There are also lower-rise, older apartments in the area.As you can see, there’s quite a large setback in between the various condos.One thing to note is that you can’t really park on the street here. There is a large basement carpark at Revenue House, which is located at the other end of Gilstead Road. However, it’s quite far from this end, especially on a hot day. I actually got a migraine after the walkabout due to the blazing sun and lack of tree cover in the area, so your friends and family may find it a bit too far away to park there.On the way, we pass a large construction project. It is the 32 Gilstead boutique condo by Kheng Leong, where units are selling for quite a hefty price ($14million.) If you’re curious about what the property looked like before it was demolished, you can view it here.And, of course, landed homes.Most of the homes here are on the larger side. These are some of the more “modestly” sized ones.I think this is one of the strata landed homes.More of the landed homes. You also find some very grand vintage houses here, like this one.Another beautiful property.A few condos in between the landed homes, but they don’t detract from the spacious landed residential enclave feeling.Continuing on my walk. As mentioned, there’s not much tree cover here.The land here isn’t quite flat. This property is located at the top of a short slope.Another low-rise condo. As you can see, there’s quite a wide range of properties here: detached homes, semi-Ds, terrace strata units, high-rise condos and low-rise apartments.So far, I’ve not seen any part of the road which allows for street parking. This could be because Gilstead Road connects two main roads (Thomson Road and Dunearn Road) so there’s a fair amount of passing cars going through the estate, trying to avoid the traffic jam on the main roads.We pass some more modern houses now. Do you prefer modern looking homes or vintage ones?
Zooming out so you can see what Gilstead Road itself looks like.
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The majority of the houses here are “smaller” rebuilt homes. There are only about three or four of the large vintage homes left in this estate, sadly.
See what I mean about the land not being that flat here?Although I said the modern houses are “smaller”, you may have noticed that some still have quite capacious car parks.Another cool looking house.One reason the estate here feels spacious, despite being home to several condos, may be because a good number of these condos are older ones, with generous plots of land. (i.e. They’re not built all the way to the fence.)Another vintage property – do you have a favorite out of all the different architectural styles we’ve seen so far?This brings us to other end fo Gilstead Road where this grand old dame is located. I like the landscaped hedges around it!Here, you’ll also find Buckley Road, where you find more apartments.Turn left here and you’ll find Revenue House building, which is where your friends and family can park when visiting. (On a side note, the parking charges here on Sundays are very reasonable!)Revenue House is to our left, and the entrance to Gilstead Road on our right.The car park in question.
Around Revenue House, you can also find many eateries. (You’re actually very close to Novena MRT and its malls, such as Novena Square 2 and Velocity.) The only fly in the ointment is the massive construction in the area, which has been going on for quite a while.
Here’s a photo of the construction I mentioned, taken from Revenue House.
These are some of the construction sites you pass by on your way to the eateries next to Revenue House.
Some information about the ongoing works.
A few of the restaurants in the shophouses besides Revenue House.
There are other conveniences here such as a medical group and enrichment centre. The only thing I’d say is missing is a grocery store, but there is NTUC over at Novena.
Now that we’ve finished our tour of Gilstead, how did you find it? Let me know in the comments!
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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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