Where $4m semi-Ds sit next to $40m GCBs: Touring First Avenue in Bukit Timah

Most of us are familiar with 6th Avenue, but did you know there’s also a First Avenue, Second Avenue, Third Avenue, Fourth Avenue and Fifth Avenue nearby? I must have passed these streets hundreds of times on my way to school (back in the day), but had never explored them. Since we’ve been touring the East for the last few weeks, I thought it would be nice to go somewhere different today, so off we go to First Avenue.

Let’s start along the main Bukit Timah Road (from which you turn into First Avenue.) 

Right outside First Avenue is an Esso where you can grab petrol and emergency groceries. (The only thing to note is that the Esso is located after the turning into First Avenue, so you would need to make a U-turn to get back home after pumping petrol. Alternatively, there is also a Shell on the opposite side of the road, along the Dunearn stretch.

Here’s the Esso station. It's not that close to First Avenue so the houses probably don’t have to worry about any petrol fumes.

Bukit Timah Road was quite empty when I visited, but it can get quite jammed during peak hours (typically before/ after the school drop-off, between 8-9am, before/ after school pick-up, and 6-7pm.)

There's a small building with some commercial units on Bukit Timah Road too.

Unfortunately, there aren't many "useful" shops to residents (useful in my opinion, that is) besides a pilates studio, beauty salon, and pet grooming place. (There’s also a wig shop and bicycle shop.) A cafe or convenience store would have been a nice touch. On the bright side, it has underground parking where your visitors can park. (You’ll see later that there’s no street parking on First Avenue.)

As the sign here shows, we’re about 380m to Sixth Avenue MRT. The houses are sort of equidistant between Tan Kah Kee MRT station and Sixth Avenue station (about  a 17 minutes walk to the former and a 15 minutes walk to the latter.)

There's a nice and wide pavement along Bukit Timah Road.

You can also find a few large houses here. Thanks to their size, and the width of the pavement, the houses aren’t that close to the main road. However, personally, I’d find it quite stressful living so close to such a busy road. Reversing out of one’s residence must be an interesting experience!

And now we've reached the turn-in to First Avenue.

Here's what Bukit Timah Road looks like after the First Avenue entrance (to the right.)

And what it looks like to the left.

Before we head in, here's a map of the area to orientate yourself. As shown, First Avenue is a cul-de-sac but there is pedestrian access to Namly Avenue (via a staircase which we'll look at later.) 

At the start of the road, the houses are on a smaller side (by which I mean a semi-D, not a terrace, so not really that small.)

Looking up towards the rest of First Avenue. There’s a bit of a slope, but the road is still relatively flat compared to some of the surrounding streets, such as Third Avenue. (One of my favorite streets in this area.)

We soon see larger properties.

And this is where First Avenue becomes interesting! If you refer to the Master Plan and sales history below, most of the houses here are GCBs but there's a semi-D amongst them! If I could afford a semi-detached property, I'd love to live in one that is set amongst GCBs (as that means you’ll have a larger setback from your neighbours aka less noise and more ventilation.)

The last sale here was in Dec 2021 for $40 million- but the last semi-D sale was in 2017 for $4 million so you can see what a contrast there is in the properties!

One thing to note is there are very few semi-Ds in the area, so the opportunities to buy a semi-D/ non-GCB property are few and far between. Secondly, do keep in mind that the semi-Ds are located closer towards the main road (I didn't hear any noise when visiting but there wasn’t many cars on the road then.)

Thirdly, note that the commercial building we saw just now is zoned 3.0 so it could one day be replaced by a very tall building, which may change the feeling of the estate.

Looking back towards the main road from the point at which we start to seeing the larger properties.

One of the larger properties in question.

And its neighbour, which is quite different in style. (All the houses here have their own look so there's no uniformity in design.)

There's a white line drawn along the road, i.e. no street parking is allowed here. 

The line extends towards the top of the street.

I like how there's a pavement along the road which makes it easy for pedestrians. (Though I imagine if you can afford a GCB, you most likely have a car or five.)

Towards the top of the street, the houses feel even more spaced out and idyllic. (This is more similar to what the units over on Third Avenue look like.)

And a photo of the bottom of the street so you can view them side by side.

Another detached property. (I didn't notice any other semi-Ds apart from those right by the turn-in.)

I wouldn't mind a garden like that. However, an acquaintance who lived in a GCB did once complain to me that all the big gardens meant that the neighbours' gardening work can be quite noisy and annoying. Still, it’s better than living next to an en-bloc condominium project I imagine.

You may have noticed that most of the houses we've seen are not very tall. That's because there’s a restriction of building up to two stories for GCBs. (In addition, the minimum land plot size is 1,400 sq m, and the total area covered by the building can only be 40per cent.) So basically in a GCB estate, you typically won’t find your neighbours towering over you. (If you want to check whether a property lies in a GCB estate, you can use Edgeprop's Landlens.)

See what I mean about the properties being not-that-tall?

Although, thanks to sloping land, it is possible for your next door neighbour to be quite a bit taller than you.

One of the houses closest to the top of First Avenue.

We’re almost at the "summit" now.

The slope is not very evident when we look towards Bukit Timah Road.

However, when we look towards Namly Avenue, you get a better idea of the elevation.

Along this stretch of Namly Avenue, we find mostly educational institutions.  (There is a restaurant, Table at , in SIMM Management House though. I went once and it was surprisingly packed despite its out-of-the-way location.)

As mentioned before, there’s no vehicular access to Namly Avenue here but you can get down via a narrow staircase. Having said that, the only reasons I can think of as to why you would need to go to Namly Avenue are only to get to the Table at 7 restaurant or to get to 1 of the schools, such as Hwa Chong International School. (The pictures are taken from Namly Avenue, looking up towards First Avenue.)

Now that we’ve seen First Avenue, how did you find it? At the time of writing, there was only 1 unit for sale at $12 million ("Only" 5000 sf though, so it’s not a GCB.) There was also a sale at the neighbouring Third Avenue for $26.5 million in November 2024. 

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.