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Touring Seletar Hills Estate: Affordable Freehold Landed Homes From $3 Million
Published 5 Nov 2023 | 3 comments | 0 shares | 10min read
BY TJPublished 5 Nov 20233 comments | 10min read
BY TJ
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
Today, as per a reader’s request, we’re off to view Seletar Hills estate, specifically Jalan Ketumbit, Jalan Keruing, Jalan Antoi, Jalan Kelulut, and Seletar Hills Drive. I’ve included a screenshot of Google Maps below to help you better visualise, but basically, we’re touring the pocket of land between Yio Chu Kang Road, Jalan Selaseh Park, Jalan Kelulut, and Jalan Keruing.
The first thing you may notice when you look at the map is the two rows of shophouses in the estate: one opposite Jalan Selaseh Park and one along Jalan Kelulut.
Here’s the one opposite Jalan Selaseh Park – as you can see there is very limited open-air parking opposite the commercial units.It has quite a diverse range of shops.An Italian restaurant. Standing outside the shops and looking at the park.The row of shophouses is broken up by a road. On the other end, you can find a Chinese restaurant and a small kopitiam.The kopitiam – I couldn’t get a photo of the actual stalls as there were a lot of people seated inside for breakfast.Small provision shop next to the kopitiam, convenient for grabbing a snack!The park opposite.Streets around the park and shops.We’re literally a stone’s throw from the main road (Yio Chu Kang Road) here – it’s the road behind the blue house.This is what the street to the left of the junction looks like.Did a quick Google search but didn’t see news of burglaries despite the warning sign above. (The only news I could find was the report about dead cats/alleged cat cruelty in the area in 2018.)As shown, the park is pretty spacious.
Now, if you’ve been following this landed series, you might think that I’ll be a big proponent of the area. (As a huge fan of village life, I usually extol the virtues of landed estates which have shophouses and open spaces in them.) Unfortunately, this isn’t an estate that I’d be super keen to move to. Now, I’m not saying it’s a bad estate, just that it’s not for me (if I could even afford it) – let me show you why in the photos of the walkabout!
Firstly, some of the roads are really congested due to people parking on the streets, making it difficult to drive through. (It’s also VERY difficult to find street parking – not an issue if you have one car but if you have more than one, it may be a problem.)Now, cluttered streets aren’t unique to this estate – we’ve seen them in many other landed enclaves, such as Luxus Hills. (It’s just next to Seletar Hills, actually.) However, not only are the roads here congested, but many are also narrow and curving, which makes it pretty stressful to walk around the estate. Now, if you’re not huge on walking, this won’t be an issue for you. However, if like me, you like the idea of “village living” because you want to be able to take a leisurely stroll to the shophouses and restaurants, the roads here make it more a pain than pleasure!A few photos to give you a sense of the width/curvature of the streets here.See what I mean?If not, here are more photos. As you can see, there isn’t much pavement to speak of in parts of the estate, making it necessary for you to walk on the roads, but due to the cars/curve, you can’t see on-coming traffic, which makes it stressful for both pedestrians and drivers!This is one of the better pavements in the area.
However, for a landed estate, I must say there are quite a few amenities inside, which make life more convenient. Besides the two rows of shophouses I showed earlier, there’s another one just two roads down (but on lower-lying land.)
You can find a physiotherapist/reflexologist here. Love the idea of being able to walk to a foot massage.As well as another Italian restaurant, art school and fitness studios.There’s more parking here (as compared to the other shophouses), and the road is also wider.Opposite the shophouses, there are more houses, separated by a road.The road here is wider, straighter and easier to traverse, so you probably won’t have as much issue walking around if you live on this end and visit this row of shops (as opposed to the other row of shops.)See how much broader the pavement is?
We’re quite near the main road here (still Yio Chu Kang Road) so let’s wander out to see what’s outside.
As you can see, it’s a big road here (but not very busy when I visited.)There’s a petrol station across, which is helpful if you need things that you can’t get at the provision shop shown earlier (or to top up your tank.)
The area feels a bit desolate but walk a bit further down and there’s also a bus stop, where you can take buses 50, 70, 70M, 103, and 854.
Turn in the other direction and this is what you see- quite an open area and some HDB blocks in the distance (The closest is about a 25-minute walk away.)
Fun fact: Do you recognise the area? We were just across the road (behind the petrol station) when we toured the Gerald estate! (Bigger houses and a more spacious estate over on that side.)
Now that we’ve seen the outside area, let’s head back into the estate.Back at the shophouses we saw earlier.A closer look at the houses across the road. Have you noticed something? The house on the left is much bigger than its counterpart on the right! Which brings me to the other positive of this estate: there is a large proportion of original condition houses and thus a HUGE potential for plot ratio maximisation.
Let me show you:
Example 1.Example 2 (inter-terrace.)Example 3 (semi-D.)Example 4. (Have I made my point yet?)If not, here’s 1 more: the difference in colour should make the difference in size very obvious! Probably because of the potential for expansion, I saw several construction projects in the area.Of course, there are also parts of the estate that have been fully built up.Nonetheless, there was definitely a MUCH higher proportion of vintage condition houses here as compared to other estates. (Keep in mind that old houses are a great opportunity if you want to design and build your own house. However, having more such houses in your neighbourhood may mean that you have construction projects near you for the foreseeable future, something that can be quite challenging in terms of noise, dust and even just having construction trucks block the narrow roads.)
I’d say the crux of this estate is that not all houses are equal: you’ll need to choose carefully for the best quality of life.
For example the houses here not only have wider roads with no street parking outside them (easier to drive/walk) they even have a small driveway in front of their gate, allowing them to park more than one car. (For contrasting examples, scroll back to the earlier photos – not going to show one, as it won’t be far to single out any property in particular.)
If you have a more limited budget, there’s also a cluster house development here: Seletar View.
Entrance to the cluster development. According to Google, there are 14 units here, which share a swimming pool, BBQ pit, and playground. (1 unit for sale at the time of writing for $3.1 million.)The cluster development is located on relatively higher-lying land (but is near the main road, Yio Chu Kang Road, so road noise may be an issue.)
This brings us to the end of today’s walkabout – how did you find the area?
As mentioned earlier, although I find the area annoying to walk through, it does have a good number of amenities nearby! Besides the rows of shophouses within the estate, Seletar Hills is also very close to Greenwich V, a small mall about 10 minutes walk away (depending on which part of the estate you’re starting from) where you can find a Cold Storage, Toast Box, food court, Guardian, etc i.e. most of the amenities one would require is within walking distance. If that’s not enough, there’s also a Sheng Shiong about 20 minutes away at Jalan Kayu, a Giant about 10 minutes away at Buangkok Crescent, and Buangkok Square Mall about 12 minutes away. (No shortage of resources for kids such as a preschool, playland, dance academy and tuition centers at Buangkok Square Mall.)
In terms of the all-important primary schools, both Hougang Primary and Fernvale Primary are within 1 km of most houses in the area.
Unfortunately, you can’t have everything in life: like most landed estates, the public transport here is somewhat limited. There are the buses I mentioned earlier, but no MRT station close enough to (feasibly) walk to. (You could, however, take the LRT which is about 20 minutes away.)
Last but not least, let’s have a look at the previous transacted prices in the area since I mentioned them as a selling point:
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
I’m sorry but which part of 3 Million is affordable?
Can you do more Bukit Timah reviews?