Located up on a hill, Balmoral Park is something of a secret enclave. I know people who’ve lived just down the road from it for years, but still don’t know about it.
In fact, before I visited, I thought the area only had condominiums, so I was very surprised to find a handful of landed properties — not just detached units, but also smaller semi-detached homes.
We previously visited several landed enclaves with plot ratios of 1.4 (i.e. able to be rebuilt into low-rise apartments given the absence of other restrictions) — but, the landed houses on Balmoral Park are unique as their plot ratio is not 1.4 but 1.6 (A plot ratio of 1.4 can be rebuilt into a five-storey building whilst 1.6 allows you to build up to 12 — more than double. No surprise that the only listing I could find at the time of writing was asking for a cool $27 million!)
There is only one vehicular entry and exit out of the estate: just off Mercure Hotel and Novotel Hotel, or the old Pinetree Club.
These are the closest amenities to the estate; you’ll find a few eateries at Novotel. Other than that, you’re not within walking distance of many things, besides the YMCA on Stevens Road.
It’s at least a 10-15 minute walk to the closest MRT station (Stevens MRT). Keep in mind that the properties are on a hill, so you will need to climb up when returning home. In fact, I mentioned the area to two different friends, and both immediately said the walk home would be a pain.
There have been several other collective sale attempts by projects in the area, such as by Pinetree Condo.
The demolition and rebuilding of a high-rise apartment is always an inconvenience to its near neighbours (dust, noise, etc) and may be even more of a pain here, given that there is only one road in and out of this estate, so it’s something to keep in mind.
This brings us to where we started, and thus the end of the tour. How did you find the area? This is actually my favourite part of the Stevens-Newton area. I generally find the rest of the area too busy and noisy, but Balmoral Park is really tranquil and private.
Not only is it hidden away from the main road, you don’t find any childcare centres in it, which can greatly raise the noise levels of neighbourhoods, though of course convenient for residents with young children.
The estate is also super close to town and located within one-kilometre of many popular schools, such as Singapore Chinese Girls’ School and Anglo-Chinese School ACS Primary.
As with almost all landed estates, you’d probably enjoy living here more if you have access to a car.
For example, the closest place to get groceries would probably be the Cold Storage or FairPrice on Bukit Timah Road/ Dunearn Road, and that would involve at least a 15-minute walk on hilly ground.
The last thing to highlight is that there is a large reserve plot located a stone’s throw away. Depending on what the land is used for, this could have a large impact on the residents here.
If it were used to develop more apartments, the extra supply would have an impact on property prices. Alternatively, if it were used for commercial units or a mall, this would bring more amenities but more noise to the neighbourhood.
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By: first published in Stackedhomes.
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