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, we toured landed houses in Queenstown where houses sell for $12 million. If you liked the area, but not the price, today’s tour may be of interest to you: landed houses about 15 minutes away (on foot) on the market for $1.6 million and under (at the time of writing.) As always, there is a catch: these are HDB terrace houses so public housing and leasehold (99-years.) However, if your primary objective is to experience landed living, have a bit more space, enjoy having your own garden etc -versus viewing a house as primarily an investment vehicle for capital growth- then join me on this walkabout!
Before we start, for those not familiar with the Queenstown HDB landed houses, here is some information for you.
There are actually 2 areas in Singapore where you can find HDB landed houses- besides Queenstown, the other is near Whampoa, in Jalan Bahagia. (I briefly looked at the Jalan Bahagia HDB terraces during my house hunt way back in the day- you can read about it (and some hopefully useful house hunting tips via the link.) I’ll be honest- personally, I much prefer the Jalan Bahagia HDB estate to the Queenstown HDB terrae estate as the former is just so much more private and prettier. However, that comes at a cost- the Jalan Bahagia houses are not the most accessible or convenient if one doesn’t have a car. The Queenstown HDB terraces, on the other hand, are located in central Singapore and walking distance from a MRT station! (Some properties are within 500m of the MRT and 1 km of 2 Primary Schools: Queenstown and New Town.)
Let’s take a look at the estate so you can see for yourself.
You can see a hint of the houses in the background of the picture. The HDB houses are actually spread over quite a wide area, with parking spaces and other items dotted in between the rows of houses. Some of the parking spaces are very full and small so hard to navigate with larger cars. If you have this issue, an alternative would be to park in MDIS, located to the left of the photo.
1 of the parking spaces in between the HDB houses. The advantage of such a set-up is easy access to the car from the house so you don’t have to lug groceries, luggage etc over a long distance. The cons are the car fumes and lots of coming and going right outside your place. Also, a car park is obviously not the most scenic view!
Across from MDIS and some HDB houses is a mosque.There is also Queenstown polyclinic opposite a row of HDB terraces (and street parking lots.)
Here I am standing outside the polyclinic- this is what you can see of the houses opposite.
Behind the HDB houses are some “regular” HDB apartment blocks. There is also Queenstown Community centre here. (i.e. most of the government-type amenities are located at 1 end of the HDB landed enclave- the end that’s furthest from Queenstown MRT- so, in my opinion, the houses here would have the least amount of privacy.)Walk down a bit more and there are more rows of terrace houses. Here we have rows on both sides of the road.A look at the row on 1 side.On the left side, there’s a short cut to the main road in between the rows of houses.And a look at the row on the other side.Not all houses here are created equal. Some have driveways whilst others do not.Some corner units have (relatively) huge gardens.Behind these houses is a HDB apartment block and a URA car park. In the background of the photo, you can see yet another row of HDB terrace houses. (See what I mean about how the Queenstown HDB terrace units are scattered all around? Because they are interspersed with taller apartment blocks, empty land, car park spaces etc, the HDB landed estate in Queenstown feels less planned to me (compared to Jalan Bahagia) and more like an afterthought- like the houses just randomly popped up any where they fancied.)At this end, there aren’t a ton of amenities but there are a few vending machines in MDIS if you’re desperate!Quick peek at the MDIS car park.More HDB houses, and the empty land next to them. One of the better located rows of houses in my opinion. (More privacy.)Walking down the road from Queenstown Polyclinic, there’s a car park on your right and more houses on your left.Cute sign we see along the way.
I’ve visited the area several times. On 1 visit, I had to park pretty far away and you pass this construction site. Obviously the area may feel very different once work is completed but when I visited it felt a little bit industrial.
If you live in an integrated development, maybe it’s better to give up the car.
Ryan J ·
4 Jun 2023 ·
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Passing yet another row of HDB terraces- these are located closer to Queenstown MRT. There is even a sheltered walkway which we’ll take a look at later.These units have a nice wide walkway in front of them but are unfortunately located on lower ground (so you have to walk down steps to enter the houses.) There’s also not much space for a garden but you do get some nice planter spaces in front of the house.They’re opposite a tall block of flats though so I wonder if it’s quite dark inside. I did visit one which didn’t have as much natural light as I would have liked (but hesitate to generalise about the whole row as that unit had very old interiors which could have made it appear darker than it actually was.)Turning back to look in the other direction.These steps give you an idea of how much lower the HDB terraces are located (versus the pedestrian pathway in front of the houses- I believe it’s park of a linear park.) And this photo gives you a better sense of the height difference between the HDB houses and the flats in front.A photo of the backyards of 2 parallel rows of HDB terraces. As the barrier wall is so low, it could be too close for comfort for some people. Alternatively, if you have a nice neighbour, it’s great!Walking a bit further.These houses have a great unblocked view.As do these. I even saw chickens wandering outside! I prefer the location of these to the ones located around the car park.These entrances to the houses are nice. Some houses are very close to the sheltered walkway that leads to the MRT. I’m standing under the walkway not and taking a photo of the houses here. The bright side is you won’t get too badly drenched when coming back on a rainy day- since there’s not much of an uncovered walk home- even if you don’t have an umbrella. The downside is the loss of privacy as quite a few people use the walkway.Walking down the walkway for a bit. We won’t actually go all the way to Queensway MRT as 1 MRT station looks more or less the same as another so a photo won’t benefit this article that much.Looking at the houses from the walkway.Turning and looking at the road, standing outside 1 row of houses. Note that there is a red-light crossing here for easy crossing of the main road (Commonwealth Avenue.) There are a few eateries, cafes, Sheng Shiong supermarket, and Margaret Drive Hawker Centre opposite, as well as Queenstown Primary School and Alexandra Canal Linear Park.Near one row of HDB terraces is a Shell station which looks to be the closest convenience/ grocery store you can find (besides Sheng Shiong, which you’ll have to cross the road for.)Closer look at the Shell station and the car park next door.And the houses across the road from Shell (arranged around an outdoor car park.)A photo to show you both the houses and Shell in the same photo so you can gauge the distance for yourself- I like how there’s a sheltered walkway but some people don’t like to live too close to a petrol station.There’s enough empty land to create a makeshift court of sorts. (Badminton?)Or to expand your garden backwards onto the empty land besides the house. (Not all houses have this privilege though- I would say that choosing a house in the right row is even more important here than it usually is since the rows are all so different.)
Now that we’ve seen the entire Queenstown HDB landed estate, how did you find it? Personally, I still prefer Jalan Bahagia but I do find this estate very conveniently located. Let me know what you think in the comments?
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
