Today, we're on the second tour requested by Jordan: Carpmael Road. It's actually very close to his first requested tour — Onan Road — but I'm giving it its own piece because the two streets felt totally different when I visited. (And I ran out of space in my first article.
Ho Loon, thanks for your comment — I'll do a more in-depth tour of specific parts of Braddell Height as requested in a few weeks' time. I still have a few other reader-requested enclaves such as Toh estate to finish up before that!) If you want to be near a hawker centre, but not on the same street as it, Carpmael Road may be more down your alley.
Before we start the walkabout, here are the last transacted prices:
One thing I noticed is that the terrace houses and semi-Ds aren't too far apart in price: $4.58 million and $5.5 million respectively (comparing just the last transactions of each property type.) PHOTO: Stackedhomes
And a map of the neighbourhood for you to locate yourself:
PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Like Onan Road, Carpmael Road is a very long road running from Changi Road to East Coast Road but we'll only be focusing on the section between East Coast Road and Dunman Road today. (We covered the upper part of Carpmael Road in another tour last year.)
You may have noticed that Onan Road and Carpmael Road are parallel to each other — both roads also have the same 1.4 plot ratio zoning allowing housewners to build high — so why did I do two different articles for them?
Well, despite the fact that both roads have terrace houses (and that the hawker centre is located on Onan Road), Carpmael Road actually feels busier, and more cluttered. It was also more difficult to drive down, due to the haphazard way cars were parked along the street. (Unlike Onan Road, it felt like there were fewer parts of the street marked as "no parking" areas. Whether that's a boon or bane, you'll have to decide for yourself.)
Photo Evidence 1: there are cars parked almost along the whole street. Spy the parking cones in the photo? I can see why they're out as I visited during off-peak hours but couldn't find parking. PHOTO: StackedhomesPhoto Evidence 2: cars are parked in all sorts of ways along the street (though not breaking any traffic laws I must point out.) Whilst I admire their creativity, it does give you the feeling that the roads are squeezy when you drive down, especially since there are also cyclists sharing the not-that-wide road with you. (This may be a generalization but I always see cyclists when I'm in the East. Definitely more so than when touring Bukit Timah.) I can already anticipate some of the comments by people who live here so I need to highlight that this is just my personal feeling when I drove down the street. A different person may feel differently! PHOTO: StackedhomesLuckily some houses have quite generous driveways in front of their gates, so even though street parking is scarce, home owners may not have a problem with parking. (Do note the dustbins are also out in this picture though. I've also seen them elsewhere on this street but will spare you from a photo of each occurrence.) PHOTO: StackedhomesWhen I visited there was a sign up about a recent fatal accident (during the day, not in the wee hours of the morning / night) on the street, so I may not be the only one finding driving here challenging. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
In contrast, probably due to the hawker centre, Onan Road had more no-parking lines as well as designated street parking spots (where one has to pay to park.) This may have been why it felt more spacious and easier to traverse.
Ok now that that's out of the way, let's get down to business and do the walkabout tour of the estate.
We're going to start over at the Dunman Road end, where you can find a small URA car park — where your visitors can park if they can get a lot! (There are fewer than 10 spaces.)
The public car park. PHOTO: StackedhomesWhich is opposite this row of houses on Pennefather Road. If you're worried about fires, I'll just highlight that there's a fire hydrant here. PHOTO: StackedhomesHere's where Carpmael Road meets Dunman Road. PHOTO: StackedhomesThere's a bus stop located here — Buses 16, 16M and 33 stop here. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesWalking down Carpmael Road. PHOTO: StackedhomesSome houses have seen the need to put up no parking signs on their gates. PHOTO: StackedhomesSee what I mean about the road being tight? The cars parked on the left are very close to the curb but almost touching the line in the centre — less skilled or newer drivers with larger cars may struggle here. PHOTO: StackedhomesThere was also a fair number of construction projects going on. PHOTO: StackedhomesHouses on the street came in a variety of sizes (but terraces looked to be more common.) PHOTO: StackedhomesThere was a fair number of single storey original structure units next to redeveloped houses that had built higher. Note there's a construction project in this photo too. PHOTO: StackedhomesAs mentioned, the houses don't line up perfectly here — some have longer driveways than their neighbours. (We'll see this again on other parts of the street.) PHOTO: StackedhomesMy favourite part of the street is this row of vintage houses. Note that not all vintage houses have car park spaces inside so these ones are lucky. PHOTO: StackedhomesA close-up. PHOTO: StackedhomesContinuing down the street. PHOTO: StackedhomesYou can also find some pedestrian alleyways bisecting the street (providing a shortcut to parallel streets such as Onan Road.) PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesAnother house that has taken advantage of the plot ratio. PHOTO: StackedhomesSome houses have longer driveways (behind the gates) so parking may not be an issue for them. (In case you're wondering why I'm bringing this up, I guess my point is that since properties are not one-size-fits-all here, you might want to think carefully about your parking requirements before deciding on which unit to buy.) PHOTO: StackedhomesLove the vintage window grills. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesSee what I mean about how cars have to just take advantage of whatever space they can to park here? PHOTO: Stackedhomes
I have more photos of the parking situation but I figure I've made my point and you'd like to see something else.
One of the larger units on the street. PHOTO: StackedhomesAnother big unit. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesWe then reach the Carpmael Road-Marshall Road junction. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesWe find some taller houses here (A second photo here, for you to see how these houses tower over their neighbours.) PHOTO: StackedhomesI didn't see any litter when I visited, but there was a Do Not Litter notice (something I've seen in other landed enclaves too.) PHOTO: StackedhomesSome newer houses so you can see what it's possible to build here. PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesWe're starting to see taller houses here. PHOTO: StackedhomesYet another construction project — see what I mean? To be honest, the street may feel less cluttered once all this construction work is completed. (There were no large construction trucks blocking the road when I visited but I'd hate to have to drive down the road when they're around.) PHOTO: Stackedhomes
We've almost reached the other end of Carpmael Road now. Before we get there, we pass the Carpmael Road- Fowlie Road junction. Here you find a church with a large plot of land.
PHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesPHOTO: StackedhomesIf this land ever gets redeveloped into smaller units, the area would feel more tight. PHOTO: Stackedhomes
Before we end, did you notice something? There weren't really any boutique condos here — something I liked as boutique condos in a landed enclave can make the area feel less spacious.
