Touring Jervois Ville: Freehold landed living in a GCB neighbourhood that's more affordable than you think

Today, we're at the Jervois neighbourhood, which is my favourite out of all I've toured so far. The first time I realised there were more 'affordable' terrace houses in the area was when I visited a work colleague. Before that, I'd always associated the area with sprawling mansions and large villa-style GCBs (Good Class Bungalows)!

Indeed, driving to Jervois Ville was a beautiful and relaxing journey, as you traverse spacious, leafy and tranquil roads. The roads do become noticeably smaller and more crowded as we reach this part, where you find the terrace units and condos, but read on to see why I still love this area nonetheless.

As you can see, even though I say that the road is more cramped than the others in the neighbourhood, it's still very easy to drive through. If you're worried about where visiting friends and family can park, the road is a dotted white line so there's space for them to park there (behind where I'm standing).

This is not a through road, so it should be a little more private as you shouldn't get too many non-residents driving down it. The terrace units also appear to be at least 2,200 square feet and above which is relatively large. The listing for sale, for example, is 2,422 square feet.

To put that in context, that's about the same size as the semi-detached houses I toured at Michaels Residences (Dairy Farm area) a while back.

However, do note that as the houses form a curved shape, the plots may not be regular rectangles in shape, which may be an issue for some people who believe in feng shui. 

These units, along with Jervois Ville and most of the landed properties along this cul-de-sac are zoned 1.4 so have the potential to be en-bloc-ed into a low-rise condo, in the absence of further restrictions. This is probably why, besides large houses, Jervois is also home to numerous boutique condos.

And the reason why I loved this neighbourhood so much! The little pathway leads to Prince Charles Crescent which, although home to several condos such as The Crest and Principal Garden, is really, really quiet and tranquil.

I visited on a weekend evening so I did run into a few people walking their dogs or taking a jog but, as you can see, the road and pavement here are super broad so it didn't feel crowded at all.

Honestly, if I could afford it, I would move to this neighbourhood just to enjoy this sense of peacefulness and spaciousness.

Note 1: Principal Garden is actually a 600+ unit high-rise development (24 floors) so it's really surprising that the area still has such a spacious and serene atmosphere. It's one of those places that you'd really have to visit for yourself to understand why it's been pretty popular in the resale market despite that location being a little further off from the MRT station.

Note 2: Some units from Mon Jervois enjoy this view. I went to see the development a few years back and was so impressed by the view of the Prince Charles Crescent-facing units that I still remember it today. Unfortunately, the rest of the development wasn't as impressive (to me, at least). 

At one end of the road is the Singapore School for the Deaf and, at the other (closer to Alexandra Road), is My Saviours Church.

Note: Next to Gan Eng Seng is quite a large reserve site.

As you can see, the condos after Prince Charles Crescent are all much higher rise than those at Jervois. The Crest and Principal Garden have a plot ratio of 2.1, One Jervois 2.8 and two plots of land (zoned residential) across Alexandra Canal 3.5.

Cross Alexandra Road/Canal and you find a few HDB estates. In fact a 17-minute walk brings you to the famous Redhill Market.

If that's not enough, you're also about the same distance from Beo Crescent Market, Bukit Merah View Market & Food Centre and Zion Riverside Food Centre.

Certainly a lot of choices, so you can see what a great location Jervois is (close to Orchard Road but not far from local necessities too.) 

There are also Delta Sports Hall, Delta Swimming Complex (both temporarily closed), as well as two more schools: Ascension Academy (International School, but note this isn't its permanent home as the plot is actually a reserve site) and APSN (Tanglin Special School.)

Next to Gan Eng Seng School is Tiong Bahru Park so if the walk along Prince Charles Crescent isn't enough, Jervois Residents can head over there to relax.

Now that we've seen what this side has to offer, let's head back to Jervois Ville and have a look at what's on the other side. 

Earlier, I forgot to mention that you can find Crescent Girls School at the other end of Prince Charles Crescent but do note that it's a Secondary not Primary School (so the one kilometre rule isn't applicable here.)

Walk past the High Commission and you eventually reach Delta Road which leads onto River Valley Road.

There you'll find some commercial shophouses (a vet clinic, pet shop, cake shop etc) as well as Valley Point about a eight minute walk from Jervois Ville — has a FairPrice Finest and Little Farms. It's also the location of the nearest bus stop, which serves 14, 32, 65, 139 and 970.

Note: One of the downsides of the neighbourhood is that it's not the closest to a MRT station (17 minutes to Redhill MRT or 22 minutes to Great World) so the bus stop and taxi stand will come in handy if you don't have a car.

I've seen property listings advertising it as close to Orchard and Somerset but at over 30 minutes walk, that's definitely not my idea of close!

Across the road is Valley Point shopping mall (there's an NTUC here) but if you need more shops, you can walk along River Valley Road then turn right on Zion Road/Kim Seng Road and you'll reach Great World City.

Next to Esso, along Jervois Close, is one of the higher-rise condos in the Jervois area, One Jervois. (It has a plot ratio of 2.8 and 12 stories unlike the rest of the Jervois condos, which are mostly zoned 1.4 and five-stories tall.)

We've now come to the end of our Jervois walkabout. How did you find the area? Personally, I was really surprised to find such 'affordable' housing in the area.

Not that $5 million to $6 million is low, but given that, at the time of writing, an Upper Thomson terrace was asking for over $6 million and a Toh Tuck terrace house was asking for over $5 million (as was a Pasir Panjang property), I was expecting the Jervois/Tanglin area to be going for more than that. 

Note: The reason for the pricing could be because those three properties were built in the last decade or so compared to Jervois Ville which was built in 1989.  

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.

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