When a reader asked for a tour of Westwood, I must confess, I sighed. (No offence to anyone living there!) After viewing several 99-year landed estates, I'd noticed that parking is usually in short supply and was dreading the endless rounds through the estate in hunt of a place to park!
Nonetheless, the readers have spoken, so off to the West, I went.
(And, yes, I was right, parking is a nightmare for visitors! It's better for residents though - more on this later.)
If you don't believe me about the parking, here's photographic evidence of the parking situation!
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
At the time of writing, units for sale were listed from $1.999 million to $3.5 million.
It's one of the few estates where a cluster house goes for about the same price ($2.4 - $2.48 million for a unit at The Woods, maintenance around $580/month at the time of writing) as a 'regular' landed house. Note that both are 99-year leaseholds,
The Woods dates from 2010, having TOP-ed in 2013 and the 'regular' houses date from 1994, having TOP-ed in 1998.
Given the (relatively) affordable price point, it's no surprise there were quite a few sales here in 2022. I counted at least 10 sales, ranging from $1.508 million to $2.68 million.
For those who prefer living in a condo, there's also an EC next to the landed estate, Westwood Residence, which TOP-ed in 2017 with 480 units.
You can see the condo next to the houses here. It's separated from them by a small open field, which was turned into a makeshift football pitch when I visited.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
What I like about the terrace houses at Westville are the double-volume ceilings in the living room and the windows that let in lots of light. You can see a video of a sample unit here (inter-terraces can be rather gloomy). From the outside, some of the houses actually reminded me of the ones at Loyang Villas.
Maybe it's just the colour scheme that looks like Loyang Villas? I like the contrasting black and grey/white paint!
PHOTO: StackedhomesA few of the houses here have the same long driveways that we saw at Loyang (This is why I mentioned that parking for residents isn't as much of an issue as it is for visitors). Generally, the houses could park up to two cars in front of their properties. If you have more than two cars, however, you might have a problem!
PHOTO: StackedhomesExternal view of the large light-letting-in windows. By the way, remember what I said about parking? See those parking cones in the photo!
PHOTO: StackedhomesThe earlier driveway was abnormally long. However, you can see here that even the standard terrace house is able to park two cars. Thanks to the small pavement in front of the house, the second house can protrude from the porch without blocking the flow of traffic (You would have to be comfortable with never closing your gate though).
PHOTO: StackedhomesLook to the left of the photo to see what I mean about the pavement in front of the house providing parking opportunities. It also gives you more room to drive in or out of your house if someone inconsiderate parks right opposite your gate and blocks you!
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Also, note how almost every house uses bins to reserve the spaces in front of their property. It's almost impossible for visitors to find somewhere to park, without the house owner having made space for them.
To be fair, the roads were fairly broad, my car sensor only went off once when driving through the estate (at a section where there were cars parked on both sides of the road).
However, for some reason (maybe because the pavements are often taken up by gardening) people choose to walk on the road here. And, given that there were an abnormally high number of people walking on the roads in this estate, having to navigate pedestrians, oncoming cars and cyclist in a single-lane road makes it quite a stressful estate to drive through!
Perhaps this isn't a regular occurrence because it was a weekend evening, but that was my experience so far.
Example of gardening on the pavements.
PHOTO: StackedhomesView of the road - you can see how the lanes are broad enough for a car to pass even if there are vehicles parked on both sides of the road.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes Photo of someone walking in the middle of the road to support my earlier point about people not using the pavements here. I counted at least five different people walking on the road in my photographs, which has never been the case in other landed estates (And there were even more people strolling around that I didn't take photographs of!).
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Clarification: I walked in the middle of the road too. My point here isn't about how people walk on the road, but more about the number of cyclists and people who walk on the road, making driving more of a hassle as you have to constantly manoeuvre around them.
Another street, another person, and more rubbish bins are used to 'chope' space.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
One thing I must note is how the estate caters well for families. There are a lot of playgrounds in the estate - I believe I counted at least three!
Playground one: There are two separate outdoor playing equipment zones set in this relatively large open space in the middle of the estate.
PHOTO: StackedhomesMore exercise equipment or play equipment in the same space, on the other end.
PHOTO: StackedhomesSo it makes sense that one of the units across from this area was turned into a Montessori Child Care Centre (Little Tree House). There are two other childcare centres near the estate: Star Learners at Jurong West (five minutes by car and 10 minutes on foot) and Learning Seeds Child Development at Gek Poh (this is according to Edgeprop but I couldn't find Learning Seeds at Gek Poh on Google Maps).
PHOTO: StackedhomesPlayground two (Westville playground).
PHOTO: StackedhomesBehind this playground is a long ramp that takes you down to the main road. On the left is Westwood Secondary School (I'll show you a photo later, when we do our walkabout the boundary of the landed enclave. From what I understand, the closest Primary School is Pioneer Primary, which is over two kilometres away). To the left is a pavement for pedestrians to stroll around the estate, elevated from the traffic.
PHOTO: StackedhomesTo the right of the ramp is this row of houses. It's set somewhat below the playground. It's not shown in the photo, but to the right of the photo is a staircase that brings you up to the playground.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Note that this area does not lead onto the main road, so cars shouldn't be able to access it. It's a great place for kids to cycle, run around, play badminton and whatnot without worrying about cars.
If my bearings are right, behind this road is the Jurong Police Division Headquarters, which I passed on my walkabout of the estate. There were no photography signs everywhere, so I decided to play safe and not take a photo (the HQ is sort of opposite Westwood Secondary).
I decided to walk out here to tour the borders of the landed enclave. Right In front of the row of houses is this bus stop, visited by four buses: 172, 199, 405 and 974.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
There were also two rental bikes parked neatly next to the bus stop.
Westwood Secondary, as mentioned. On the note of schooling, there are at least two kindergartens near by: Centre of New Life (about seven minutes walk) and Al-Nasry at Jurong West (10 minutes walk).
PHOTO: StackedhomesApparently, you're near the Goat Farm (and a 10-minute drive from the Bird Park, which is relocating soon, for your information).
PHOTO: StackedhomesWestwood is surrounded by some pretty large roads. The one in this photo is actually the quieter end of the estate!
PHOTO: Stackedhomes Opposite is a Muay Thai Gym, TEG International College and a student hostel. There is also a Shell station, which you can see it peaking through the edges of the trees on the right of the photo above. I'm guessing there must be a Mcdonald's somewhere closely as I could smell the french fries when passing other pedestrians (Yep, there's one at Gek Poh Shopping Centre, the closest shopping centre: three minutes by car, about 10 minutes on foot).
PHOTO: StackedhomesAfter passing the police station, you come to a large drain. There's a narrow path beside the drain that allows you to re-enter the estate. I must say this is one of the 'pros' of the estate. There are lots of alleys in between each row of houses and into/out of the estate, making it easy for pedestrians to get in and out.
PHOTO: StackedhomesExample of an alley in between rows of houses.
PHOTO: StackedhomesAnd again.
PHOTO: StackedhomesAnyway, past that drain and we are soon back at the entrance into the estate. Speaking of exits and entrances, there are two ways cars can get in and out: Westwood Avenue (shown here) and Westwood Road.
PHOTO: StackedhomesHere's a quick peek.
PHOTO: StackedhomesWalking back into the estate, here is the 'field' that separates the houses from the condo that I mentioned at the beginning of the article. You may not be able to see it here, but there are two football goals posts at the other end of the field.
PHOTO: StackedhomesIf you walk down the stone steps in the grass, it brings you to another part of the estate.
PHOTO: StackedhomesWalk straight down the path between the tree and the houses (in the previous photo) brings you here - to a quaint path that surrounds some of the houses.
PHOTO: StackedhomesDoesn't this look so peaceful and tranquil and out-of-Singapore-ish? Well, looks are deceiving! The noise level, shall we say, leaves much to be desired. Part of Westwood borders the PIE. It's literally right next to it, so if you're pollution, or noise-sensitive, you will need to be careful picking the location of your house here!
PHOTO: StackedhomesThere were hedges everywhere (to block out the noise and dust, I presume) so I couldn't get a good shot but, suffice to say, there was more than one major road next to Westwood (we'd get a road below and a road above for example, like you see here)!
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
A picture paints a thousand words, so here's the map for you to see for yourself!
Photo of someone walking in the middle of the road to support my earlier point about people not using the pavements here. I counted at least five different people walking on the road in my photographs, which has never been the case in other landed estates (And there were even more people strolling around that I didn't take photographs of!).
PHOTO: StackedhomesThe houses are elevated so they enjoy a relatively unblocked view.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes Judging from this house, it is possible to construct a backdoor that leads right onto the path, which is nice!
PHOTO: Stackedhomes I guess this is one of the 10 houses that sold in 2022, now being reconstructed?
PHOTO: StackedhomesHere's another look.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes Before we end the tour, here's a look at the Masterplan for the area.
PHOTO: StackedhomesI was quite happy when I finished my rounds of the path, and headed back in, where it was quieter.
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
As you can see, there are many plots of land whose uses have yet to be determined ('subject to detailed planning'). What we do know is that there is an upcoming Gek Poh MRT station, which will be part of the Jurong Region Line, scheduled to open in 2027, and about 10 minutes walk from the landed properties.
Now that we've seen Westwood, how did you find it? Here's a last look before we end our tour.
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