Touring Haus@Serangoon Gardens: Bustling landed living near a plethora of amenities for about $3 million

Serangoon Gardens is one of the most popular landed enclaves in Singapore. So when I learned about Haus@Serangoon Gardens, a 99-year leasehold, 97-unit residential enclave on a 28,402 sqm plot of land, where you can get a new landed house for about $3 million, I thought it’d be an interesting addition to this landed tour series. 

Note: According to the data on SRX, there were 12 sales here last year at $2 million+ (about 1,600 sq ft plot size) and three sales of slightly bigger units (around 2,000 sq ft) at a little over $3 million. No sales in 2022 so far apparently, though there were two houses rented out at $6,200- $6,500.

The listings online show that you can get a freehold terrace house in Serangoon Gardens for $3.85- $5.28 million. However, the $3.85 million property is in original condition and would need major A+A (as per the listing.)

Hence, for those who don’t want to take on major construction projects during these uncertain Covid times when construction costs are high and timelines are often delayed, Haus@Serangoon is something to possibly consider.

The terrace houses at Haus@Serangoon Gardens were developed in 2016 by CDL & Hong Realty, with leases starting from November 2011. (With 88 years to go, you have some buffer time before lease decay sets in.) There are 2 types of terrace houses at Haus@Serangoon Gardens:

One called the “Zen” design and, the other, the “Cosmopolitan” design. 77 of the houses are inter-terraces, ranging from 1,615 – 1,913 sq ft and 18 corner units of 2,175 – 3,144 sq ft in size. Click here to see what the inter-terrace looked like right after TOP (i.e. not factoring in any changes owners may have made to the layouts.)

Note: I believe the nearest other two leasehold landed estates would be one that has 40-years left on the lease and Chuan Green, which is about 1km away and where leases start from 1997.

House layout

The area looks nice and green and rather idyllic, doesn’t it? Well, appearances can be deceiving! That’s the trouble with photos sometimes, you can’t really tell how noisy the place is!

The land is zoned as two storey landed, so houses can have two stories + an attic. However, these terrace houses also have a basement (which is generally more expensive to construct and where the bomb shelter is located) so the build-up is comfortably at 3,500 – 3,600 sq ft, a luxury in today’s space-starved Singapore.

As they have no lift, it is nice to see that they have made space on the ground floor for a bedroom and bathroom. However, frankly, I doubt it would be feasible as a Granny’s room, as the space is minuscule. It’s just about enough to fit a single bed and a wardrobe, but it looks nowhere wide enough for wheelchair access. Having said that, the living and dining space are well-sized (with nice ceiling heights of about 4m) so you could always do a bit of rearrangement of the layout to make a bigger granny’s room.

There is a small backyard, with glass panels that you can open to allow for ventilation into the basement (the panels are clear to allow light through). However, the placement of the panels makes me worry for the safety of pets who could fall through when the panels are open (and maybe even toddlers, if the panels open wide enough).

The master bedroom and bathroom on the 1st floor are a nice size, and I like how they’ve included a window in the sidewall of the bedroom, despite this being a terrace house. The junior master is actually on the top floor, where there is a small family area and a roof terrace.

For those who like entertaining on their roof terrace, you’ll be pleased to find that you can access the terrace without entering the junior master. However, it’s a little disappointing to see that the only bathroom on this floor is a junior master ensuite bathroom, with no jack-and-jill access, so guests would have to enter the junior master to use the loo. (Or head downstairs.)

Interested parties will be happy to hear that the properties received the BCA Green Mark Platinum award. If you’re wondering what this means for the house owner in practical terms, well the houses have solar panels and an in-built rainwater harvesting system. Something I’m sure we all wish we had now that everything, including utilities, is even more exorbitant than usual in Singapore.

(By the way, not all landed houses, especially terrace ones, can have solar panels as the roof needs to be of a certain size before the solar panels have any impact on your electricity bills. Moreover, having aircon compressors, pumps etc may also make solar panels not viable. So far, I’ve enquired about 2 residential properties, and both houses received a no-go from the solar panel company.)

Neighbourhood 

Another photo of the main road. As you can see, people do like to park on it, but it doesn’t hinder you from driving through easily (at least not on a regular day – I’m not sure about festive seasons!)

Haus@Serangoon Gardens consists of five parallel, short roads (cul-de-sacs) with houses on both sides of the road which are wide enough to have cars parked on both sides and allow for another vehicle to comfortably drive through.

The units are far enough from the shops at Serangoon Gardens that people are unlikely to drive all the way here to park (or at least not on the blazingly hot weekend that I visited) but close enough that you have easy access to many amenities.

Online, it is mentioned that there is a “linear park” opposite the houses. Frankly, if I hadn’t read about it, I wouldn’t have realised it was a park as it is really just a very narrow path. In fact, I thought it was meant to be a pavement! Although there is enough space for three - four outdoor fitness machines, it is even smaller than the linear park at MacPherson Gardens which I had previously reviewed.

Trouble in Paradise

Do you remember how, at the height of the Covid lockdown, there was news about people who bought properties (yes, even landed ones that are “bigger” purchases) without doing physical viewings?

Well, what came to mind when I visited Haus@Serangoon Gardens was “Buyer’s Remorse.” When I was in the car, the Haus@Serangoon Gardens enclave looked idyllic, green, and serene, yet still near to many shops and restaurants. 

This is the T-junction that brings you to Haus@ Serangoon Gardens (on the left of the photo). I thought it looked so peaceful when driving in…

Unfortunately, the moment I opened the car door, I changed my mind immediately. The area is rather noisy! Even at 730 am on a weekend morning, you can hear the incessant loud buzz of traffic so I was pretty sure that the nice greenery was hiding an expressway behind it and, sure enough, when I checked the map, I found that Haus@Serangoon Gardens borders the CTE.

To check whether the noise is audible at all the houses, I walked to the house furthest from the CTE, and yes, the traffic noise was just as loud there. 

This is taken from outside the last house at the cul-de-sac and, yes, the road noise is still as loud as ever. 

You may not be able to hear it from within the house (I didn’t go in for a physical viewing) but living next to such a busy road would mean that lounging outdoors may not be very relaxing and isn’t one of the key reasons for moving to a landed house a desire for more space? (The road noise is probably why the houses don’t have much outside space.)

To be fair, there may be some people who have no issue with noise but it’s certainly something I think most people would want to know about a property before purchasing as, even if you don’t mind it, it may affect the ease of selling if you want to divest the property in future.

Shops & restaurants 

The underpass below the CTE

There is an underpass across from the houses that go under the CTE and brings you to the other side of the road, where I presume there is a wet market or supermarket as I saw people coming back with shopping bags. (It takes you to Ang Mo Kio HDB estate, Teck Ghee neighbourhood park, and the bus stop.)

A 10 minutes walk also brings you to the many shophouses at the Serangoon Gardens roundabout. I counted at least 3 different banks there, so you can see how many commercial units there are.

I felt a little like a country bumpkin when I first visited this area, as I had never seen so many shops in a landed housing enclave before! There is also a small mall of sorts (My Village) which has a Fair Price Finest. (For those who need more retail therapy, Nex Mall is a short drive away.)

However, living here may not be the best for your figure and health, as the famous Chomp Chomp Market is only a 13-minute walk away. It opens from 4 pm till well into the night, so is a great place for supper!

 

Moreover, the convenience comes at the price of exclusivity. Many people like to live in landed houses for serenity and Serangoon Gardens is anything but that. Even at 8 am in the morning, it was all hustle and bustle, and there were numerous people out and about. 

That said, I understand everything is to each its own. For some landed buyers who are still looking for convenience and rather enjoy the vibrancy of an area, rather than an idyllic peacefulness, Serangoon Gardens can still make sense.

There are several churches (at least three under 10 minutes away) and homes (for the elderly etc) in the area. One of the churches even holds a food rescue event several times a month.

In terms of schools, there are 3 Primary schools within 1km: Chij Our Lady Of Good Counsel, Townsville Primary School, and Teck Ghee Primary School so, as you can see, this area has something for almost everyone.

It is slightly over a 20-minute walk to Ang Mo Kio MRT but buses enter the Serangoon Garden landed enclave, though there is no bus stop at this end.

This article was first published in Stackedhomes.