For Singaporeans of a certain age, the phrase “One Tree Hill” will bring to mind the OC in the US (thanks to a teen drama, back in the day) instead of the so-named, exclusive landed estate within walking distance of Orchard Road.
Unsurprisingly, that’s one of its top-selling points. We’ve covered a few landed enclaves whose claims to fame are that they are within easy distance of central parts of Singapore, such as Fernhill (another part of Orchard) and Jalan Mutiara (Great World City.) However, even though One Tree Hill is just as conveniently centrally located, you might say even more so, it remains (relatively) obscure and peaceful. Unlike the landed estate Kimsia Park (found behind Lucky Plaza), for example, you don’t have to go through the Hoi Polloi visiting Orchard Road on your way home. Neither do you get many strangers wandering outside your door.
Anyway, let’s head over so you can see for yourself!
The houses here are larger than the ones at Jalan Mutiara and Kimsia Park so you’ll have more space, but will also need a bigger budget. It’s mostly detached houses and semi-Ds, though I did see one small row of terrace units (the one shown in the feature photo of this article.)
But before I get ahead of myself, here’s a map of the area. As you can see, the landed estate is sandwiched between some of the most prestigious addresses in Singapore: Tomlinson Road, Anguilla Park, Paterson Road, Grange Road, Chatsworth Road… You’ll have some pretty illustrious neighbours!
The streets here are quite broad. Some allow for street parking and were not cluttered when I visited. (It’s a less well known estate and across the road from Orchard so not many people park here to save money I think.) Passed a house for sale.As we’re close to Orchard, you’ll see towering skyscrapers. They’re not too close here, but on some of the other streets, you do feel a bit loomed over.Quite a few vintage-condition houses here. I’d say it has more older houses than the other landed estates close to Orchard/Great World that we visited. Some of the houses are also slightly elevated- there’s a small slope up to the main door, as shown above.In case the slope wasn’t clear enough, here’s another photo to show you what I mean.This is a head-on shot of the article’s feature photo – the only row of terrace houses I saw when exploring.Most of the houses were semi-Ds, with the odd detached units.Detached house, as shown, the apartment blocks are much closer here.Here’s one of the older apartment blocks that I mentioned – Kum Hing Court, a freehold apartment built in 1975 on a slight slope. Prices were around $2,600 psf at the time of writing.We’re so close to Orchard Boulevard MRT, there’s even a street sign within the estate. There’s some open space when we walk past Kum Hing Court, so the area doesn’t feel too built up.If you keep walking down, you’ll reach Tanglin Mall in a few hundred meters. To the right is a sheltered walkway – this is the way to the main Orchard belt and Wheelock Place.The left is sheltered too, leading to the MRT.There are more houses to be seen, so let’s head back in.The estate was pretty quiet when I visited – I didn’t see much traffic or people strolling around.As mentioned, there were quite a few older-style houses – more than I had expected considering how posh the address is.But there were some newer ones too, like those shown above. As you can see, there is some room for properties to be built higher to maximise the plot ratio.The roads were clear, and people seemed to respect the no parking lines, so the dustbins stayed in their original spaces (i.e. on the pavements outside the houses instead of used to reserve parking space on the main road.)Helped that many houses had a lot of parking space – just look at how long the driveways here are!Or here (since the gate above was blocked you might not have gotten a clear view) – you can park 3 or 4 cars here I think?Having said that, most of the houses here didn’t have gardens as big as you would expect from the address. The one above is one of the biggest I saw, there were only a handful here with gardens this size, so this may not be the estate for you if you’re looking for a GCB-like property.Nice modern house. Here’s another apartment block – One Tree Hill Mansions. Built in 1980, it’s a 99-year leasehold so probably represents the lowest entry point into this estate. ($1,500 psf at the time of writing.) Reviews on Google were good but more than 1 review on PropertyGuru mentioned issues with the lifts. I quote: “lifts are sometimes scary to use”… The apartment is apparently old enough that nothing came up on Google Maps when I searched for it, but you can find it opposite the newer One Tree Hill Residences.It’s separated from Grange Road by the lower-storey Rainbow Mansion, an 18-unit development built in 1977, with none available for sale at the time of writing. (Just to point out, both Rainbow Mansion and One Tree Hill Mansions have a plot ratio of 2.1.)There were, however, several units available for rent at Rainbow Mansion (shown above.) Some of the units were rented out by room.Opposite these 2 units is Maple Bear pre-school.Walk past Rainbow Mansion on your left, and you’ll see Grand Road (shown above.) The yellow block is Grange Road Apartments.Looking to the right.As you can see, this road gets its fair share of traffic. Thankfully the noise levels weren’t high within the estate.Looking to the left.Now let’s head back in and over to the third vehicular entry/exit into this estate: Paterson Road (which leads towards Orchard Ion – see what I mean about how well-connected this estate is?) In case you can’t remember, the first entrance is via Tomlinson Road, off Orchard Boulevard (close to Tanglin Mall) and Grange Road, shown above, is the second.A redeveloped row of semi-Ds.The redeveloped units are much closer together than the older ones, so if the entire estate gets rebuilt, it may lose some of its spaciousness.Here’s the spacing between two older houses for comparison – you can see right through to the apartment blocks behind. (Not possible with the newer row of houses above.)We pass another low-rise apartment block on Jalan Kelawar (no sign indicating the name of the development.)Jalan Kelawar is the least spacious of the streets in this estate.It’s also the only one on which I saw dustbins used to reserve parking space.The houses feel more squeezy too.There are also more houses built on an incline, as you can see here.There were a few construction projects in progress – more so on this street than on the others in the estate.Eventually, the street meets Julan Tupai.Where the houses seem bigger and more modern.Jalan Tupai brings us to the third main road, Paterson Road, which will lead you to Orchard Ion and Orchard MRT.The estate is elevated a few metres above Paterson Road.So much so that there are even steps built into the pavement to lead you in/out!This is what you see when you reach Paterson Road – it’s the busiest of the three roads, in my opinion, though Orchard Boulevard is a close second.Looking to the right – this way takes you to River Valley.Looking to the left – the MRT is about where the overhead bridge is. You can even see Orchard Ion from here!
We’ve seen most of the houses already. However, I’ve shown you the old apartment blocks dotted around the estate but not the newer ones, so it only seems fair if we go look at those too, to give you a more complete understanding of the estate.
Headed back in again, and passing my favourite property in the area. I hope it gets preserved and not torn down like so many of the beautiful older buildings in Singapore!Reaching the newer apartments – as you can see, the area starts feeling much more congested.The apartments here are the sort where you can find sculptures in the grounds.And double-height lobbies.Which sculpture do you prefer?Most of the developments here are low-density ones, so they consist of a single tall tower.At the end of Anguilla Park, we reach another sheltered walkway. This could technically be the fourth entry/exit into the landed estate, but as it also joins Orchard Boulevard (as Tomlinson Road does), I didn’t mention it.That’s Wheelock across the street.Close enough that you get another sign to the MRT – this time you can also find the red line here. (If you can’t read it, it says 80m to Orchard MRT.)
This brings us to the end of today’s tour. How did you find the estate? I must say, I’d never seen the appeal of living close to Orchard before I visited One Tree Hill as the other estates felt much too busy. One Tree Hill enjoys all the conveniences of being close to town but not the noise and congestion.
