In Singapore’s competitive property market, buyers often find themselves caught between their aspirations and crushing reality. Budget constraints often force…
Located up on a hill, Balmoral Park is something of a secret enclave. I know people who’ve lived just down the road from it for years, but still don’t know about it. In fact, before I visited, I thought the area only had condominiums, so I was very surprised to find a handful of landed properties- not just detached units, but also smaller semi-detached homes.
We previously visited several landed enclaves with plot ratios of 1.4 (i.e. able to be rebuilt into low-rise apartments given the absence of other restrictions)- but, the landed houses on Balmoral Park are unique as their plot ratio is not 1.4 but 1.6 (A plot ratio of 1.4 can be rebuilt into a five-storey building whilst 1.6 allows you to build up to 12- more than double. No surprise that the only listing I could find at the time of writing was asking for a cool $27 million!) Join me in my walkabout of the area to see why the houses here can transact for such high prices.
Here’s the Master plan: Balmoral is the little enclave is located in between and above Stevens Road and Balmoral Road. If you’ve been following the news in the last few years, you’ll know that Balmoral Road is prone to flooding so the higher vantage point of Balmoral Park is definitely appreciated!
There is only one vehicular entry and exit out of the estate: just off Mercure Hotel and Novotel Hotel, or the old Pinetree Club. These are the closest amenities to the estate; you’ll find a few eateries at Novotel. Other than that, you’re not within walking distance of many things, besides the YMCA on Stevens Road. It’s at least a 10-15 minute walk to the closest MRT (Stevens MRT). Keep in mind that the properties are on a hill, so you will need to climb up when returning home. In fact, I mentioned the area to two different friends, and both immediately said the walk home would be a pain.
This is the only entry and exit point (for vehicles) out of the estate. Some of the condos have back doors that lead onto the main road, but alas, I don’t think the residents of the landed houses can use them.One of the hotels. There’s a Japanese restaurant, a Chinese restaurant, bistro, etcThe properties here (condos and houses alike) are quite buffered from the main road. They’re not located immediately at the junction of the main road, so it’s not noisy. At the point at which I’m standing, you can take either a right or a left. It doesn’t matter which way you go, as the two roads form a loop and they both go uphill anyway.Let’s take the main road (to the left) which means we will walk right next to the hotels.See what I mean about the estate being uphill? The condo in front of us is a low-rise, but it looks much higher as it’s located on higher land.The trees here are quite young and don’t provide much shade on sunny days.Still uphill.I’m looking out over the hotel pool here. Below the trees is the main Stevens Road.One of the older condos in the area. Thanks to its age it has larger units but unfortunately some units are walk-ups.The condo is huge, so we don’t see any other properties for a bit.Looking up, to the right, to the condo. See how the land to my right is higher than the land on which I’m standing, and how the land on which I’m standing is higher than the land to my left?We’ve now come to the first house, a detached unit, and it’s quite large. We don’t see many red brick houses in Singapore these days.Zooming out so you can see the house in relationship to its neighbours. It’s a standalone house located in between two condos. I usually don’t like houses in between condos as they feel a bit sandwiched but thanks to the fact that we’re on a hill, the situation isn’t as bad here. (Based on what we saw before, I think the house should have an unblocked backyard, although I can’t confirm it since the house owner didn’t invite me in!)Walking uphill again to see if there are any other houses.Another of the condos in the area.Next door is Balmoral Hills.It’s followed by Pinewood Gardens. This condo recently made the (property) news thanks to the record $2.62 million profit made on one of the units.The Balmoral is the low-rise condo I mentioned earlier. It’s also the condo with the largest land plot in this estate. There are only 81 units spread over 23,249 sqm, which is one reason this area feels so nice, spacious, and peaceful. However, the property is quite old, so some owners may be waiting on an en-bloc (especially since some of the units are walk-ups). A real estate agent told me that the residents of The Balmoral had also unsuccessfully tried to go en-bloc in the past, but I couldn’t find any relevant news articles about that. It is not required for en-bloc attempts to have public announcements.
There have been several other collective sale attempts by projects in the area, such as by Pinetree Condo. The demolition and rebuilding of a high-rise apartment is always an inconvenience to its near neighbours (dust, noise, etc) and may be even more of a pain here, given that there is only one road in and out of this estate, so it’s something to keep in mind.
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We’re approaching the second landed house in the area. Nice landscaping here.The second house is on our right. It looks bigger than the first house, but of course, looks can be deceiving. It could look larger because it’s not hemmed in by high-rise apartments on both sides, for example.The second house. This is pretty much the highest point of the estate. As we turn round the corner, the land starts to slope downwards. Walking down this road will take us back to the junction we were at earlier.More landed houses. You may have noticed that all the landed houses are dotted around this part of the estate, save the first one we saw, which is a bit of a lone ranger.This house is for sale. I like how the immediate neighbours are about the same height. Although the properties to my left are high-rise apartments, they’re hidden behind the trees.Someone was moving in when I visited. (Or moving out.)For the people who don’t have $27 million to drop on a landed house, there are seem smaller properties in the area, such as these semi-detached homes. They’re pretty rare in the market though. In fact, when I checked their history, there are no transactions shown of any landed homes here at all.On the other hand, there’s quite an active leasing history. (And apparently some terrace units too.) A clearer view of the semi-Ds.Zooming out so you can see their relationship to the house next door (which looks to be detached.)The high-rise apartments across the road from the landed houses. Initially I wasn’t sure if it was an apartment as there were some “no trespassing” signs. The detached houses next door.At this point, we’re just walking down back to the hotels. I wonder if the “no trespassing” signs are to warn hotel guests not to enter the condos. As this estate is so private- and uphill- I don’t image many strangers wander in from Stevens Road.Another high-rise apartment across from the landed units.
This brings us to where we started, and thus the end of the tour. How did you find the area? This is actually my favourite part of the Stevens-Newton area. I generally find the rest of the area too busy and noisy, but Balmoral Park is really tranquil and private. Not only is it hidden away from the main road, you don’t find any childcare centres in it, which can greatly raise the noise levels of neighbourhoods, though of course convenient for residents with young children.
The estate is also super close to town and located within one-kilometre of many popular schools, such as Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Anglo-Chinese School ACS Primary.
As with almost all landed estates, you’d probably enjoy living here more if you have access to a car. For example, the closest place to get groceries would probably be the Cold Storage or NTUC on Bukit Timah Road/ Dunearn Road, and that would involve at least a 15-minute walk on hilly ground.
The last thing to highlight is that there is a large reserve plot located a stone’s throw away. Depending on what the land is used for, this could have a large impact on the residents here. If it were used to develop more apartments, the extra supply would have an impact on property prices. Alternatively, if it were used for commercial units or a mall, this would bring more amenities but more noise to the neighbourhood.
At Stacked, we like to look beyond the headlines and surface-level numbers, and focus on how things play out in the real world.
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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
1 Comments
J A
Super interesting. Didn’t know there were such houses in Singapore. How much would developing a plot into an apartment cost?
1 Comments
Super interesting. Didn’t know there were such houses in Singapore. How much would developing a plot into an apartment cost?