Touring Serangoon Landed Homes: Freehold Living In How Sun Drive Near Bartley MRT

A few weeks ago, I toured Tai Keng Villas and Paya Lebar Crescent. After which, a reader expressed interest in the How Sun/Bartley enclave across Upper Paya Lebar road, so that’s where we’re headed today! If you want to get a feel for the entire area beyond just How Sun Drive, I recommend reading those 2 posts too as Bartley is too large a district for me to cover well in just one article. (The area we’re touring during this walkabout is the triangular region bounded between How Sun Drive, Quemoy Road, Upper Paya Lebar Road, and Bartley Road.) 

One thing to note is that although the area is bounded by 2 major roads (Bartley and Upper Paya Lebar) both of which see a considerable amount of traffic, it is surprisingly not as noisy as I would have thought. Walking along the main road is a different matter, of course!

Note: since we are on the subject of roads, I must confess that I never liked driving back from this area because some of the junctions are just so poorly designed and SUPER confusing. Thankfully, one of them, the Braddell-Upper Serangoon-Bartley junction, where there have been a number of accidents, is currently being simplified.

If you cross Bartley road, you can find Maris Stella High School (Primary), Bartley Secondary School, and Bartley MRT. (There is an overhead bridge to help you cross safely, in case you were wondering!) Over on the Paya Lebar side, there is also Paya Lebar Methodist Girl’s School as well as St Gabriels Secondary to the West. The schools are near enough to be within the ever-so-desirable 1 km of most of the houses in the How Sun area (but I always recommend checking if there is a specific house you are interested in.) Although they’re within walking distance, the schools aren’t so close that the sounds of the children playing and the traffic congestion before/after school would affect the residents of the houses, which I personally find to be the best scenario if you want to live near a school.

Over on the Upper Paya Lebar Road side, there is a short row of shophouses where you can find The Original Katong Laksa, V Fuse Bistro, Geylang Prawn Noodle as well as some automobile shops. Another eatery along Upper Paya Lebar Road is at AUPE Club which is a private club but has a pub that is open to the public.

Note: although Google states that The Original Katong Laksa only opens from 10 am, they were open when I was there around 8 am on a weekday.

Over at the Jalan Lokam side, there is Kensington Square, which has more commercial units on the ground floor. However, there is no overhead bridge that brings you directly to the complex. Instead, you’ll need to walk down to Botanique at Bartley to find an overhead crossing (or walk in the other direction past Pillai Road.)

You can enter the landed enclave by way of both How Sun Road and Quemoy Road. However, How Sun Road is actually a short “7-shape” road that is lined with houses and leads back onto Quemoy Road. 

One of the unique features of this estate is that you can find many more “older” type buildings as shown above. (i.e. lots of plot ratio maximisation potential but also a high probability of living in the middle of non-stop construction for a considerable period of time. For the plot ratio maximisation potential, just compare the shorter buildings in the front to the mammoths behind.)

Anyway, let’s finish our walk along the perimeter of the estate before we check out the houses inside.

Another characteristic of this landed estate is the sheer number of churches in a small area. 

One thing I’d like to highlight about the How Sun area is that the land is not flat. As you can see above, some properties are on higher land than others.

These houses along How Sun Close enjoy one of the best aspects of this landed enclave, in my non-professional opinion. They’re elevated above Upper Paya Lebar Road (i.e. breezy) and have a NorthWest-SouthEast facing (so less sunny.) Moreover, they also have plot ratios of 1.4, so can be en-bloc-ed and developed into low-rise condos in the absence of further restrictions. (There are quite a few groups of landed houses in this area that are zoned 1.4 FYI.) 

Although I mentioned that these houses enjoy a great position, one thing to note is that they are sandwiched between 2 churches and a temple, so I’m not sure how noisy things will get on days of worship.

The high-rise condos are Bartley Residences, which is entered via Lorong How Sun, and Botanique at Bartley, which is behind it (not accessible from within the How Sun estate.) As Bartley Residences has over 700 units, there may be quite a few vehicles using Lorong How Sun, although the road was completely empty when I visited. The swimming pool is also located just behind the guardhouse/entrance, so the sounds of people and children frolicking in the water may be heard in the neighbouring landed houses. (I would recommend visiting on a weekend to see if you’re comfortable with the noise levels if you’re considering a property here.)

Let’s walk down to the cul-de-sac on the right of the photo above to take a look.

We’ve come to the end of today’s landed tour. Have you noticed anything missing? 

Well, unlike most of the estates that we’ve seen, there are no playgrounds or parks within the How Sun enclave. There is, however, a linear park (which is really just a slightly wider walkway) that links How Sun Drive to the Lorong Ong Lye Interim Park. (Note, it’s labelled “interim park” on Google Maps but is zoned as a park on the Masterplan, so the green space should be here to stay.)

If not, you can cross Bartley Road or Upper Paya Lebar Road to get to Bunga Rumpai Park and the Thrift Drive Open Space respectively. I’m not sure about you but, to me, even though these 2 spaces are just a stone’s throw away from How Sun Drive, they feel much further because you have to cross such busy roads to get to them.

Last but not least, before I sign off, I obviously have to talk about how the area is “up-and-coming” since I mentioned it in the headline! By now, you’ve probably heard about the relocation of Paya Lebar Air Base and the repurposing of the land for housing and industries (many times, I imagine!) Well, Paya Lebar is only around 8 minute’s drive from How Sun estate. It’s so close, you can cycle there in 13-14 minutes!

To paraphrase a quote from a Today article, Mr. Ismail Gafoor, chief executive officer of PropNex Realty, said: ”across Hougang, Marine Parade and Punggol, we anticipate that more high-rise developments …. may be built with the lifting of height restrictions in the future… This may also be positive for property owners seeking collective sale down the road since the removal of height restriction could likely enhance the en-bloc potential of some developments.” (The removal of height restrictions was mentioned in PM Lee’s National Day Rally speech.) The same article predicts an increase in property prices in the area, but only after a decade or so. To read more about the development of the Paya Lebar area, click here.

This brings us to the end of today’s tour. Let me know how you like How Sun Drive in the comments, or if there is another area you’d like to see covered!