This week, we’re taking a tour of Lorong Stangee, a small residential enclave just off East Coast Road, which is well-known for its eateries. Although I love the idea of living close enough to walk to restaurants and cool cafes, living next to a main road comes with its challenges, such as traffic noise. What drew my attention to Lorong Stangee was that though it is very close to East Coast Road, it’s separated by 2 streets: Stangee Place and Stangee Close. This helps to serve as a buffer (and indeed I didn’t hear any road noise when I was walking around.)
Landed markets are thinner and less transparent than condo markets. Good comparables can be difficult to find, and an enclave often behaves very differently from another just a few streets away.
That’s where a second opinion can be valuable: benchmarking a specific property against comparable transactions, understanding what you’re really paying for, and weighing whether it makes sense for your own plans.
Over time, that’s also why we decided to work with agents who shared the same data-driven and advisory-led approach behind our editorial, consultants who could help readers think through decisions more objectively, rather than simply push transactions.
Today, the team has worked with more than 2,000 clients across over $5B in property transactions.
Here’s the map/master plan of the area for you to check out yourself. Note also that the plot ratio is 1.4, so there may be more opportunities here than in the typical residential neighbourhood. (For example, subject to restrictions, you may be able to build higher than normal or, as the note on the Master Plan says, “serviced apartments and student hostels may be allowed subject to evaluation by the competent authority.”
Now that we’ve done the general introduction to the area, let’s go take a look!
Here’s where we start: East Coast Road. I’ve shown you the shops in previous articles, so I won’t bore you again. If you want to find out more, check out:
Here you can take several buses, so transport is quite convenient, even though you’re not super close to any MRT. (The closest would be Marine Parade MRT.)At the entrance to the estate, there’s a petrol station. I’m not sure how I feel about living so close to a petrol station but, as previously mentioned, there’s a “buffer” between Lorong Stangee and the main road.Once we turn off East Coast Road, there’s Stangee Close to the right, where you can find some landed houses.A quick peek in: oh dear, you can see parking is an issue here. I’m guessing the visitors to all the nearby cafes don’t make the situation better.Opposite is a very charming block which reminds me of Tiong Bahru, let’s take a look.I love these properties on Stangee Place – unfortunately, they appear to be apartments, not houses. I was thinking I wouldn’t mind living here.But maybe not if I drive….Not a street parking space in sight. Thankfully the street here is quite broad or driving in and out would be a pain.Heading deeper into Lorong Stangee. You may have noticed the road has an irregular shape: it’s shaped like a tree trunk with perpendicular tree branches off both sides. (i.e. there are lots of short cul-de-sacs on both sides of the main Lorong Stangee.)Here’s the first Lorong Stangee fork. Spot the dustbins? Although the street does look quite clear, I don’t think you can find street parking here, as there are dustbins outside almost every house. (Understandable!)One unit seems to have leaned into the 1.4 plot ratio – just look at how much taller it is compared to its neighbours! (The white unit.)Heading further in, on the main Lorong Stangee road.Now checking out another side street, this time on the other side of the road. Spot the parking cones? Oh, the actual side street looks okay though! Not a car, cone, or dustbin in sight.Checking out the properties. You may have noticed by now that the area is almost entirely made up of terrace units (i.e. higher density than a land enclave which has terraces and semi-Ds side by side.) Many houses look to be older, with opportunities to rebuild higher.Back to the main road. It’s interesting how there are a lot of cars parked on the main road, but not on the side streets. Maybe the visitors to the neighbourhood cafes are quite considerate about where they park…?The sidewalk is quite wide, so there are opportunities to do some gardening.Yet another side street on the right: do you see what I mean about the shape of this road? This one is not a cul-de-sac: it leads you onto Still Road, so there is more than one way for people to drive in or out of the estate, which is convenient!Some newer-looking properties here.Interesting contrast with the other side. This style reminds me of houses from the 80s.Double yellow lines on one side of the road and dustbins on the other side, so no street parking opportunities here either. Friends and family who come to visit may have to park somewhere else and walk over.Passing a charming vintage property. You may have noticed that the houses here are bigger, so this part of Lorong Stangee feels less cluttered.You also find semi-Ds here.Huge corner terraces.Charming Peranakan tiles.The ubiquitous terrace unit.A kindergarten. I like how it’s located right off the main road (so all the noise-producing entities on the street are grouped together, if that makes sense.)Still Road – much less busy than East Coast Road, at the time of visiting!Closer look at the kindergarten.Heading back in.Back out to the main Lorong Stangee. Wow, the construction on the opposite side of the road gives me a greater appreciation of how deep the houses here go!After this, the Lorong Stangee main road turns to the left and we find a small apartment building, Chapel Lodge. Interestingly, there was not a single landed property for sale at the time of writing (only 1 apartment unit in Chapel Lodge.)The area also has many alleys between the landed houses, which not only helps increase the set back between the units, but also provides a shady shortcut to get from street to street, such as the one shown above.Taking it brings you to Sundance Apartments. (I was curious.)Anyway, back to Lorong Stangee and a closer-up of the units here. This brings us to the end of the tour. How did you find the area?
CHIJ (Katong) Primary, Haig Girls’ School, Tao Nan School (Primary), and Tanjong Katong Primary School are located within a 1 km radius of some of the houses on the street (you would need to double-check for the exact house you’re looking at though.)
And, always of interest, the prices of the last 10 transactions in the area. To be honest, I was a little surprised as they are higher than the transactions in the nearby neighbourhoods that we visited recently, such as Duku Road.
Let me know what you think in the comments!
Unlike condos, there are very few true like-for-like comparisons in the landed market. Every purchase is effectively a judgement call based on imperfect comparables.
If you’d like to discuss how this applies to your own circumstances, you can reach out for a one-to-one consultation here.
And if you simply have a question or want to share a thought, feel free to write to us at stories@stackedhomes.com. We read every message.
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
1 Comments
Serangoon gardens !