Today we're exploring another landed estate in Bukit Timah, which consists of several Avenues all named after trees: Redwood, Elm, Oak, Fir, and Cypress. It's about a 12-minute walk from Sixth Avenue MRT and 17 minutes from Methodist Girls' School, with several eateries in the middle of the estate. There are also several famous schools, such as Hwa Chong, SCGS, and ACS within easy reach on public transport, making it quite a convenient place for families with school-going kids to live.

I used to have two friends who lived here when I was growing up and have visited them many times, so I'm quite familiar with the area. Let's take a walk around to see if anything has changed!

Let's start with the eateries. I can't believe Bar Bar Black Sheep is still here!  There's also a pet shop, steamboat restaurant, kopitiam, North Indian restaurant, pizza shop, florist etc.

The Kopitiam - the beef rendang here used to be good but I haven't been here in over a decade so I'm not sure what it's like now!

Walk across the road, and you'll reach another row of shophouses. There's a Mediterranean restaurant, spa, barre studio, wine shop, 7-11 and more, covering most of your bases. (No grocery store, but you'll get basic necessities at 7-11.)

One thing to note, however, is that the previous eateries shown are right smack in the landed estate. They're situated at the end of the residential streets (where Cherry Avenue and Elm Avenue meet), which can result in parking/driving-through issues. Non-residents who drive here to eat need to park somewhere, and there is no public car park nearby, so the streets can get quite jammed in the evenings. I imagine it can get quite noisy on some evenings too, especially if the patrons drink.

This is Cherry Avenue - the kopitiam is at the end of the street. It's the street closest to the main road (Bukit Timah) so you get some street noise, but it's not the worst I've heard on these landed estate tours.

I visited mid-day, and mid-week (i.e. most people should be at work and there wouldn't be too many people visiting the eateries) but there were still quite a few cars on the street.

Looking towards the other end of the street. 

Here's a closer look at the houses along the street. Most are semi-Ds which are very wide but not that deep. 

Here is an undeveloped house next to a redeveloped one. As you can see, the undeveloped one has a lot of land on the side. It's so wide, you can see most of the house behind! 

There's also room to build upwards, as shown here.

In fact, one of the things that surprised me about the area is the large number of vintage houses (one-storey houses and houses that have not been rebuilt) - which is also probably why this is the landed estate with the HIGHEST number of construction projects that I've seen in ALL my walkabouts! (I feel a bit sorry for the neighbours - all that noise and dust!)

As mentioned this street is next to Bukit Timah Road, which is typically quite a busy road, especially before and after school, since MGS is just down the road. 

There's a path that leads you directly to the bus stop where you can find MANY buses: 67, 74, 77, 151, 154, 157, 170, 174, 852, 961, 961M, and 970. (You can take the bus from here to King Albert Park MRT too, that's the closest MRT station to the estate.)

A screenshot to show you where you are, as well as how close the bus stop is.

Remember how I said the houses were close to the eateries? Well, I'm standing at the last house and ahead are the restaurants.

Next to me is an overhead bridge that will take you across the road. 

I turn to my left, and walk towards Fir Avenue.

Major construction project here - there are a LOT of works in this neighbourhood. I couldn't turn in because the trucks were blocking the road, so I continued ahead to Redwood Avenue.

Redwood Avenue shown ahead.

To the right is Old Holland Road, one of the various ways to get into this estate, so I turn left instead. As you can see MORE construction again here!

We probably see so many redevelopment projects here because many of the houses along Redwood Avenue are single-storied. There are still quite a few single-storey houses here, so if you do move into the area, you may have to live with major construction for quite a while.

I think every project I saw involved knocking down the old house and rebuilding it from the ground up.

Another thing I noticed is the parking cones - there was never an issue getting street parking here when I visited my friends in the past, but today I saw quite a few cones. Maybe because bigger houses mean more residents, with more cars?

More cones.

Construction next to a single-storey home

More single-storey homes.

Redwood Avenue leads onto Maple. Left takes you to Bukit Timah Road, so I turn right instead.

Maple Avenue – another single-storey home here. 

Walking up towards Oak Avenue and Cypress Avenue. 

Some of the houses we pass along the way.

Some houses have front porches large enough for the kids to play around.

In addition, most units are located on flat land, but a few have driveways that slope up slightly.

See what I mean about the prevalence of single-storey homes, as well as the large front yards (in the old properties)? 

The owner of this house must have a green thumb, as this was the lushest part of the whole enclave. A sight for sore eyes really!

Another house that has been knocked down.

We pass more construction and more single-storey homes along the way, but I think I've made my point by now, so I won't bore you with more photos.

The road eventually meets Old Holland Road. In front of us is Illoura, a cluster house development, and probably your cheapest entry into landed housing in this area - at the time of writing the cluster houses were going for $6 to $6.6 million and the non-strata houses around $12 million.

There are also condos in the vicinity if your budget does not stretch so high but the other landed houses are mostly bigger units. If you continue down the road shown above, you'll reach Garlick Avenue, which is mostly bigger houses. There is another cluster development though, called Eleven at Holland, but I personally prefer the units at Illoura. There's also the Teneriffe, which is leasehold (as is Eleven at Holland.)

See the house in the background? That's how much bigger the houses ahead will get! Anyway, that's not part of today's tour so let's walk back where we came from.

Walking back – you can see one of the condos I was talking about in the distance.

A redeveloped unit next to yet another construction project. 

A closer look at the redeveloped unit – as shown, you can get a lot more internal space here when you rebuild!

A quick peek down Oak Avenue - it's the only cul-de-sac in the estate. 

On the note of cul-de-sacs, let's discuss getting into the estate. There are several ways to enter the estate, the most direct routes are via Old Holland Road and Maple Avenue. Unfortunately, during school drop-off and school pick-up hours, Bukit Timah Road can be a bit of a nightmare. There's a divider built to separate the roads leading to MGS from the rest of the traffic, and you'll need to be in the "school lanes" to get home. A friend who is a parent of a kid at MGS told me the traffic is so bad, she feels sorry for the residents when she goes to pick up her kids!

Luckily, there are other ways you can get into the estate, albeit a bit more indirect. (For example, you can drive down Sixth Avenue, then down Garlick Avenue, to avoid getting caught in the school rush. Alternatively, you can enter via Holland Road - Old Holland Road.)

Another thing you may have noticed is that we didn't pass any playgrounds, but there is Maple Lane Park close by, as well as a huge open green field near Eleven@Holland. The latter is about a 10-minute walk away, and a great place to walk your dog or take a peaceful stroll.

ALSO READ: Touring Phoenix Estate: An underrated landed home cluster with unblocked views and spacious roads

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.