I first discovered these houses when visiting the Chui Huay Lim Club, which is located opposite the houses. (There are a few restaurants in the Club, so you're not far from good food — there's also Newton Food Centre 10 minutes away and Novena 15 minutes away, so I'd say the houses are pretty conveniently located.)
I'm standing outside the houses, looking over to the Club. There is parking in the Club's complex, but also designated street parking behind me. PHOTO: StackedhomesSeveral empty lots were available when I visited on a weekend, in the evening. PHOTO: StackedhomesThe area comprises mostly tall apartments. If you walk through Lincoln Road (above left), you'll eventually reach Goldhill Plaza and the Novena area, where you'll find several malls and Novena MRT (It's about 15 minutes walk away.) There's also a pedestrian crossing over the canal so you don't have to walk right to the end to cross the road. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Given how we're standing in between two very busy roads (Newton Road and Bukit Timah Road) I was surprised by how quiet the area was!
Houses on the right. Some of the houses have actually been divided into walk-up apartments, though from the outside, they look very much like any other landed house (There were two for sale at the time of writing, starting from $2.08 million. The listings were quite interesting as one apparently did not have an attached bathroom? Not sure how that would work for living quarters!) PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesIn case you were wondering about the parking charges. PHOTO: StackedhomesAs you can see, the houses are somewhat of an oddity in the area — there are just a few units, located in the middle of many towering buildings. I'd say fewer than 30 units at Jalan Aruan and around another 20 over at Makepeace Road. (There are also a couple of colonial buildings at nearby Hooper Road.) PHOTO: StackedhomesThe area makes more sense once you look at the Master Plan — apparently the houses are sitting on land with a plot ratio of 2.1, which means they could POSSIBLY be developed into high-rise buildings. I say possibly, as there may be other restrictions in place. In addition, "going en-bloc" is not a straightforward process these days. PHOTO: StackedhomesAnyway, back to exploring the area: we pass some construction work on Kampong Java road. PHOTO: StackedhomesTurning into Jalan Aruan. PHOTO: StackedhomesAs shown, the area is still extremely untouched, and none of the units on this stretch have taken advantage of the plot ratio to build higher. PHOTO: StackedhomesAccording to Edgeprop, there haven't even been any sales in recent times. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesGiven that the pavements are all above street level, I'm not sure the owners can park cars in their front porches (as there's no level road for the cars to drive onto the porch.) Thankfully, street parking is allowed here. PHOTO: StackedhomesHead-on view to show you what I mean about the front porch and its inaccessibility to cars. PHOTO: StackedhomesAt the end of that stretch of houses is a nice piece of open land. PHOTO: StackedhomesSquint and you'll see that there are more units over on the other side. PHOTO: StackedhomesSo let's take a right here to see what lies that way. (You might already have noticed that some of the houses on that side are taller.) PHOTO: StackedhomesThis brings us to Makepeace Road. PHOTO: StackedhomesPotential parking issues? My friend did say that the nearby Lincoln Road gets ridiculously crowded with parents waiting to pick up their kids. PHOTO: StackedhomesDo you find the houses here quite unique? That's because they're shophouses. (But the plot ratio is also 2.1, so something of an oxymoron.) PHOTO: StackedhomesAccording to the property listing, the 2-storey units can be rebuilt to 3.5 storeys. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesSome very interesting units here. PHOTO: StackedhomesI believe this one on the left is the house we saw behind the park (i.e. no neighbours) - and it's huge! PHOTO: StackedhomesPhoto to help you appreciate the size. And its lack of neighbours (on one side.)
PHOTO: StackedhomesCan you see how much wider it is than the houses next to it? PHOTO: StackedhomesUnlike Jalan Aruan, you can park in your front porch here. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesThe road ends in a junction with Bukit Timah Road - I drive along that road very regularly and it is almost always crowded, so I don't envy residents trying to turn out! PHOTO: StackedhomesHeading over to take a look at the traffic. PHOTO: StackedhomesI might have to eat my words, because it looks very clear at the moment! PHOTO: StackedhomesTurning to look in the other direction. PHOTO: StackedhomesWell the road going the other way is pretty jammed so I wasn't 100 per cent wrong. PHOTO: StackedhomesThere are a few commercial units here, but nothing terribly exciting. There's a ballet academy, a music shop, a TCM place, a pet place, and a spa to name a few. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Now that we've seen the outside, let's head back in again.
Retracing our steps to Jalan Aruan. PHOTO: StackedhomesLet's go take a look and see what's hiding in this green field. PHOTO: StackedhomesThere was some outdoor equipment. PHOTO: StackedhomesOld-school swing. PHOTO: StackedhomesCan you spot the Hooper Road colonial houses in the background? PHOTO: StackedhomesA small playground for the kids. PHOTO: StackedhomesThe colonial bungalows. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesIs this a portable toilet?? (I didn't want to chance the smell so didn't open it to check.) PHOTO: StackedhomesOn the left, there's a 3rd row of houses. PHOTO: StackedhomesThese look a little larger than the ones over at Jalan Aruan (where we started our tour.) PHOTO: StackedhomesRare find: some are still single storey! PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesTurn left and you'll reach the junction with Thomson Road. There's also the Central Expressway (shown in the photo too), so I was quite surprised that I couldn't really hear the traffic. PHOTO: StackedhomesI'm going to turn left to return to our starting point. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesThe estate is actually only 10 minutes walk from Newton Food Centre and Newton MRT. The path we're on now will take us there. PHOTO: StackedhomesTo the right, you can see the pedestrian crossing across the canal, which makes it easy to get to Keng Lee Road. PHOTO: StackedhomesChurch over on Keng Lee road. PHOTO: StackedhomesOnce we reach the condos, there's a sheltered walkway to take you to the MRT. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesSee where all the people are? That's Newton already. Not too far a walk at all. PHOTO: StackedhomesWell the walkway ends at the traffic light, so it's not 100per cent sheltered, but close enough. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Besides Newton and Novena MRT, some of the landed houses are also located within 1 km of ACS Junior, ACS Primary, SJI and St Margaret's.
Note that this can vary depending on the unit number so always check the distance for the particular unit you're looking at, if proximity to Primary schools is omitting that concerns you.
