Not to be confused with Phoenix Park in the Tanglin area, Phoenix Estate is a landed enclave in Choa Chu Kang. I'll be honest and confess that I wasn't expecting much before I visited: Choa Chu Kang isn't exactly known for its landed houses and it's also fairly far out.
When I'd visited Windermere EC and Pavilion Park landed estate in the past, the time taken to get there made commuting seem a bit of a trek.
There also weren't many amenities in the immediate vicinity at the moment. (Yes I know ACS is slated to move to Tengah soon but when I visited, there wasn't much around.)
However, I was pleasantly surprised by Phoenix Park! Not only is it one of the most spacious estates that I've visited (the houses have some of the most amazing unblocked views) it was also a relatively quick drive over via Upper Bukit Timah.
(You also get a lovely view of all the greenery on the way over.) Plus, there were so many amenities close by: I could even see all the way to Hillion Mall from the houses! It really came across as a very nice place to live in.
Unfortunately, I cannot show you a photo of the Mall/gorgeous open greenery because there were several "No trespassing/No photography" signs. So let me show you the houses instead!
The estate consists of terrace, semi-detached, and even detached houses. There are also a few new(ish) condos in the area, but because the estate is so generously sized, you hardly register their presence. (As in they don't loom over the houses and block the light and air.)
As you can see, parking is not too much of an issue here — there is space to go around. (You may not get a space in front of your house, but there are spaces in other parts of the estate, not too far away.) However, in some parts of the estate, many spaces in front of houses have been reserved (with dustbins.)
One thing to note is that some of the streets here have very sharp turns, so they look like dead-ends from a distance (which means that there is more of a blind spot when walking or driving around the corners.) Luckily, the streets are broad enough that you can still safely walk around the estate.
This is the row of houses behind the one I just showed you — here we get semi-Ds facing terrace units.
As mentioned, the Phoenix Estate is extremely generously spaced. Not only are the roads and sidewalks broad, but the space in between some of the houses is also large.
(This is because they're older properties which did not build out to the maximum allowed distance, so if new owners come in and rebuild, you may lose that sense of spaciousness. However, for now, the setback between some of the bigger units is extremely comfortable — even more so than in many estates in Bukit Timah!)
Here are two photos to illustrate what I mean:
There is a day care centre within the estate: Modern Montessori Choa Chu Kang MMI, with a 4.0 rating on Google, at the time of writing.
The Phoenix landed enclave is also lucky enough to have one of the largest playgrounds I've seen on my walkabouts, as well as their very own badminton court — an amenity only a handful of estates, such as Ming Teck, Cambridge estate and Jurong Park, have.
Let's take a quick walk around the playground!
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This article was first published in Stackedhomes.