As we all know, property prices in Singapore are still pretty high at the moment. Even older leasehold landed properties are not bucking the trend: at the time of writing, there were 4 units at Kingsville for sale, ranging from $4.7 million to $17.8 million (999-year leasehold.)
The lease of Kingsville, located at Kings Drive in the Coronation/Farrer area, started in 1996, so it's almost 30 years into its lease, which may lead you to think that it would be hard to sell a property here.
However, in 2024 alone, there were four sales in the area, each more expensive than the last: the first sale in 2024 was for $3.96 million and the most recent one in May, was for $5.15 million.
Similarly, in 2023, there were 7 sales. This led me to wonder about the area's appeal, so I decided to feature it in this week's article. Let's have a look!
Note: According to PropertyGuru, Kingsville is a 99-year leasehold development, but according to Edgeprop, it's a 102-year leasehold development, starting from 1996. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
For those not familiar with the area, here's the map. Immediately, I can see one reason why the landed estate is popular: it's within walking distance to both Farrer MRT and Empress Road Market and Food Centre (according to OneMap, a 6-minute walk to both)
Landed estates are often far from public transport and amenities, and Bukit Timah isn't known for its large number of hawker centres and wet markets, so this is definitely part of the estate's appeal.
There's also Tan Kah Kee MRT nearby, which gives you access to the downtown line (Farrer Road is on the circle line), but 19 minutes may be a tough sell in Singapore's hot weather. PHOTO: StackedhomesKings Drive is also very close to Bukit Timah's famous schools (Hwa Chong, Raffles Girls', Nanyang Girls', SJI, Methodist Girls', ACS, Singapore Chinese Girls' etc) but they're all a bit too far to walk to, with the exception of St Margaret's Secondary School. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesBesides Empress Road HDB estate, there's also the Queen's Road HDB estate, which is home to a few famous eateries such as Westlake, some tuition centres, a vet, and other businesses. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesFor more options, you can walk 13 minutes to Coronation Plaza, where you'll find a (very squeezy) NTUC finest, a famous popiah shop, an Anytime Fitness, some upmarket delis and grocers, KFC, Starbucks, cafes etc. PHOTO: StackedhomesAlong Bukit Timah Road (near Coronation Plaza), you also have access to MANY buses, so the area is quite well-served by public transport. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Now that we've covered the nearby amenities, let's take a look at the estate itself. As you may have noticed from the map above, another plus point about the Kings Drive estate is that there are many ways you can drive home: via Farrer Road, Holland Road, Bukit Timah Road Road etc.
This will help you to avoid the worst of the peak hour traffic jams. (I used to have to pass this area when coming back from the office, and between 6-7 pm, the jam could get quite bad, so it was nice to have alternative routes.)
From Kings Drive, you turn left on King's Road — walk all the way straight down and you'll reach Bukit Timah Road and Crown Plaza, with Coronation Shopping Centre on your left. I did the walk but must say it wasn't the most pleasant, there were quite a few pedestrians, the pavements felt a bit narrow and there was quite a lot of traffic. PHOTO: StackedhomesLooking towards Leedon Heights. PHOTO: StackedhomesKings Drive/Kingsville is behind me, and the Queen's Road HDB estate is in front of me (the red buildings we see behind the landed houses.) PHOTO: StackedhomesOne of my favourite things about the estate is the large playground, which is elevated above the houses. PHOTO: StackedhomesAs shown, the playground spans quite a large area, which serves to increase the setback between the houses, and also keep the playground sounds (a bit) further away from the houses. PHOTO: StackedhomesUnfortunately, I wasn't able to spot a ramp/ an accessible entrance to the playground, and it seems you will need to climb some stairs to get up (which could be difficult for people with more than one kid, or with children in buggies.) This could be why it wasn't in use either of the times I visited. PHOTO: StackedhomesHere's the distance between the nearest row of houses and the playground — you can't quite capture them in the same frame. PHOTO: StackedhomesSomething else you may have noticed is that most of the area has a single white line drawn through it (over 50 per cent of the estate) so it is hard to find street parking, even on regular days. During holidays or weekends, your visiting friends and family may have to park over at the HDB estate and walk over. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesI was quite surprised to see hens wandering around Bukit Timah! This is the only estate in Bukit Timah that I've spotted poultry in, I think, though I do remember seeing them in a few landed enclaves such as Pasir Ris and Sembawang. PHOTO: StackedhomesLove the high ceilings of these houses. One thing about this estate, however, is that there is not a single building appearance. Instead, different rows of houses are built in different styles. I do like how the driveway can fit more than one car, since there's not much street parking here. PHOTO: StackedhomesAnother hen and some houses with a different look. Which do you prefer? PHOTO: StackedhomesIt wasn't very obvious in the previous photo, so I'm adding a photo of another pair of houses — can we admire how large the driveway is? I'm thinking it could fit 5-6 cars (if you don't close the gate)! PHOTO: StackedhomesThe first housing style is nice, but the driveway doesn't look quite as generous. Not every family has more than one car though, so it's good to have a choice of car park size, since you have to pay for the land! PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesThis is the row of houses on the other side of the playground. As you can see the roads are spacious and secluded enough that you can play basketball outside your house. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Another reason this leasehold landed estate is still in demand, even at almost 30 years into its lease, could be the relative scarcity of leasehold houses (as compared to freehold or 999-year leasehold) in the area. In other words, the entry price of landed homes in the area.
As you can see from the Edgeprop report of the last 10 transactions within 1 km, only one was also a 99-year leasehold property (over at Victoria Park Grove. We toured Victoria Park Villas in 2022.) PHOTO: StackedhomesMoreover, the surrounding areas are pretty much mostly developed, according to the Master Plan — there are no sizeable plots of reserve land nearby, so it's not very likely that there will be many new leasehold landed developments in the vicinity anytime soon. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Now that we've finished our tour — the Kings' Drive estate isn't large, it only consists of three short streets- how did you find this development by Tuan Sing Holdings?
Before I sign off, I must mention that Nanyang Primary School is under 1 km from Kings Drive, a fact which may be of interest to parents who are keen to get their kids into Nanyang.
