Llyn Gardens
Overview & Key Facts
Llyn Gardens is a boutique freehold terrace house estate of 41 units at 1–57 Paya Lebar Walk in District 19, developed by Mansfield Developments Pte Ltd (a Keppel Land vehicle) and completed in 1991. Unlike the apartment-block condominiums that dominate the ShiokNest database, Llyn Gardens is a landed estate of 3-storey terrace and corner-terrace houses — each a self-contained freehold home on its own titled plot, with land areas ranging from roughly 1,463 sqft for intermediate units up to approximately 4,918 sqft for the prized corner positions. That distinction matters enormously: landed freehold in Singapore carries no lease-decay risk, and Keppel Land’s development pedigree translates into a quietly prestigious address in the landed-property heartland between Bartley and Serangoon.
The dual-MRT position underpins the location story. Bartley MRT (Circle Line, CC12) sits roughly 0.70 km away — the walk is straightforward via Paya Lebar Road — while Serangoon MRT (CCL/NEL interchange, CC13/NE12) is at 0.82 km, a genuine walking or short-drive dual-line hub with NEX shopping mall integrated directly above. For a D19 landed estate, this twin-station proximity is meaningfully above average: most landed clusters in Serangoon Gardens, Yio Chu Kang Road, or Hougang are one station only and at longer walking distances.
Transaction volume is thin — as is typical for any 41-unit landed estate where annual turnover rarely exceeds three to five units — but recent records paint a clear appreciation story. Intermediate terrace units have transacted around S$1,882–$2,110 psf on built-up area in the past two to three years, while a large corner terrace (456.9 m² land, 3,500 sqft built-up) changed hands at S$5,888,888 in November 2025. The ShiokNest composite score of 33/100 reflects the very small dataset and modest rental yield rather than any structural weakness in the asset itself; the freehold tenure, Keppel Land pedigree, and above-average en-bloc score of 56/100 tell a more nuanced story for patient capital.
Location & Connectivity
Paya Lebar Walk is a quiet cul-de-sac off Upper Paya Lebar Road in the residential belt between Bartley and Serangoon, in a pocket of D19 that has retained its landed character through successive URA Master Plans. The street is entirely residential, lined by the 41 Llyn Gardens terrace units and a small number of adjacent standalone bungalows. There is no through traffic, making the immediate streetscape calm by Singapore urban standards — a quality increasingly rare within 1 km of two MRT stations.
Dual-MRT access is the headline location advantage. Bartley MRT (Circle Line, CC12) at approximately 0.70 km is the nearer station — a brisk 9–10 minute walk via Upper Paya Lebar Road. Serangoon MRT (CC13/NE12 interchange) at 0.82 km is a 10–12 minute walk, combining the Circle Line with the North-East Line — giving direct rail access to Dhoby Ghaut and HarbourFront (NEL), and to Bishan and Paya Lebar (CCL). Having two lines within 1 km is uncommon for D19 landed stock; most Serangoon Gardens or Lorong Chuan landed addresses are single-station and further to walk.
The school cluster is a genuine strength of the address. Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) at approximately 0.43 km is the nearest primary school and one of the most sought-after all-girls mission schools in Singapore — Phase 2A alumni priority, strong academic culture, and a feeder relationship with the collocated secondary school. Zhonghua Primary School sits at 0.71 km and Zhonghua Secondary at 0.64 km, with Bartley Secondary School at 0.85 km and Cedar Girls’ Secondary School at 0.91 km rounding out a very deep secondary cluster. Cedar Primary (0.99 km) and Montfort Junior and Secondary (~1.0–1.1 km) extend the catchment further. For a P1-balloting strategy — particularly one centred on PLMG (Primary) within 1 km or Zhonghua Primary Phase 2C — this is one of the stronger multi-option school addresses in the Bartley–Serangoon corridor.
Day-to-day convenience is solid without being exceptional. NEX at Serangoon (Fairprice Finest, NTUC, cinema, full dining) is 0.82 km at the Serangoon interchange. Heartland Mall at Kovan adds a secondary supermarket and F&B node at Kovan MRT (~1.28 km, beyond the Bartley–Serangoon pair). The Upper Serangoon Shopping Centre on Upper Serangoon Road and the Kovan wet market provide neighbourhood-scale daily needs closer to home. Serangoon Stadium and Serangoon Swimming Complex (ActiveSG) provide sports and recreational facilities within a short drive. The Paya Lebar Quarter commercial cluster — PLAB, PLQ Mall, WeWork, Singpost Centre — is 2–3 stops west on the CCL, relevant for white-collar workers based in that corridor.
Schools & Education
2 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Zhonghua Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Zhonghua Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Bartley Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Cedar Girls' Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Cedar Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| Montfort Junior School | primary | ~1.0 km |
| Montfort Secondary School | secondary | ~1.1 km |
| Red Swastika School | primary | ~1.3 km |
Facilities
Llyn Gardens is a landed estate, not a condominium, and prospective buyers must calibrate expectations accordingly. There is no shared swimming pool, gymnasium, tennis court, clubhouse, or formal MCST-managed common facilities. What the estate provides instead is the full landed living experience: individual homes on private freehold land, no common-area fees above a modest estate maintenance levy (pest control, perimeter fencing, security lighting, road and drain upkeep), and the freedom to renovate, extend, or modify the interior and exterior of each home — subject to URA and BCA approvals — without MCST consent.
Each terrace unit has its own private enclosed front yard or car porch (typically accommodating one to two cars), a rear yard or garden, and at the corner positions a significantly larger wraparound land area. The 3-storey build of corner units (see the November 2025 sale of a 4,918 sqft land, ~3,500 sqft built-up corner terrace at S$5.7M) includes features like sky terraces, roof decks, and multi-generational floor plans — a product category that no standard condominium block can replicate.
For lifestyle amenities, the wider Bartley–Serangoon catchment substitutes effectively for on-compound facilities. Serangoon Stadium and Swimming Complex (ActiveSG) provides competition-grade pools and sports courts. NEX has a cineplex. Chomp Chomp Food Centre at Serangoon Gardens and the Kovan hawker stalls provide a credible food identity. The Upper Thomson and Bishan Park corridor is accessible in 15–20 minutes by car. Buyers who self-select into landed living typically make this trade-off consciously; what Llyn Gardens lacks in poolside amenity, it returns in land ownership, renovation freedom, and the quiet of a cul-de-sac street with no high-rise neighbours overlooking the back yard.
Unit Sizes & Layout
Llyn Gardens comprises 41 terrace and corner-terrace houses across 1–57 Paya Lebar Walk (odd numbers). The estate was developed with a mix of intermediate and corner positions across a broadly consistent 3-storey build, though exact unit configurations differ by position. Based on available transaction and listing data:
- Intermediate terraces: land area typically ~1,463–1,800 sqft; built-up approximately 1,900–2,500 sqft; 4–5 bedrooms, 4–5 bathrooms across 3 floors plus car porch and rear yard
- Corner terraces: land area typically ~3,500–4,918 sqft; built-up approximately 3,000–3,500 sqft; 6–7 bedrooms, 5–6 bathrooms, sky terrace or roof deck, wraparound garden
Transaction PSF figures reflect the inherent landed-property complexity: PSF is measured against built-up area in some records and against land area in others, producing the wide spread in the dataset. The yr0 figure of S$837 psf represents a confirmed anomaly in the ShiokNest dataset — almost certainly a transaction where PSF was calculated against a very large land area (or an older outlier from a different valuation period) rather than the built-up norm. Recent bona fide transactions tell a different story:
Unit internals at the 1991 vintage reflect late-1980s design conventions: generous bedroom footprints with attached bathrooms, a proper full-sized kitchen with yard access, and a formal dining-plus-living separation on the ground floor. The 3-storey format places a master suite typically at the top level with private access to a roof terrace or sky deck on corner units. Buyers considering a purchase should budget for a renovation cycle — kitchen and bathroom refreshes at minimum, full-gut for premium-grade finishes — which at S$80,000–S$200,000 depending on scope, is the normal capital outlay for any 35-year-old landed asset in Singapore.
Rental demand exists and is established: 13 rental transactions are on record, with a median of S$4,800/month and an average of S$5,077/month. A specific 2,500 sqft 4-bedroom unit listed on 99.co at S$4,800/month corroborates the median figure. At an average sale price of S$4,175,397 and a median rent of S$4,800/month, the gross yield of approximately 1.38–1.41% is characteristic of Singapore freehold landed — a segment where capital preservation and long-run appreciation are the primary return drivers rather than income yield, and where the yield compression versus condominium stock reflects the permanence of the freehold land title.
| Bedrooms | Transactions | Avg PSF | Avg Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 BR | 4 | $2,238 | $3,764,722 |
| 5 BR | 3 | $1,305 | $4,722,963 |
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 7 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $3,400,000 to $5,888,888, averaging $4,175,397 (~$1,909 psf).
Rents range from $3,500 to $10,200 per month across 13 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 1.4%.
Price Appreciation
From 2021 to 2025, the average PSF has appreciated by 128.1% (from $837 to $1,909 psf).
Neighbourhood Comparison
Llyn Gardens competes in two distinct market segments and buyers should be clear which comparison is relevant to their use-case.
Versus D19 freehold condominiums: Chuan Park (99yr leasehold, 916 units, recent transactions around S$2,596 psf) and Affinity at Serangoon (99yr, 1,012 units, ~S$1,698 psf) both offer full condominium facilities — pool, gym, clubhouse — large transaction databases for price discovery, and leasehold tenures that still carry 70+ years. Against these, Llyn Gardens is meaningfully more expensive on an absolute basis (S$3.5M+ for an intermediate terrace vs S$1.5–2.5M for a comparable-bedroom condo unit), offers no shared facilities, and has a much thinner transaction record. The buyer choosing Llyn Gardens is explicitly prioritising freehold land title, renovation freedom, private landed space, and multi-generational configuration over facility amenity and price-discovery liquidity.
Versus D19 landed peers: The more relevant comparison is other freehold landed estates in the Bartley–Serangoon–Kovan corridor. Serangoon Gardens estate freehold terrace and semi-D stock trades at S$2,000–S$2,800 psf (built-up) and carries significant premium pricing for the estate name and GCB-adjacency. Lorong Chuan and Chiltern Drive landed stock is comparably priced but has only a single MRT option (Lorong Chuan CCL). Kovan Road terraces offer NEL single-line access. Llyn Gardens at S$1,882–$2,626 psf (built-up) with two MRT lines within 1 km and a deeper school belt than most peer estates represents genuine value within the D19 freehold landed peer group, particularly at the intermediate-terrace price point.
The direct landed competitor most worth noting is Bartley Villas (57 units, 99yr leasehold from 1993 — now approximately 69 years remaining), which sits even closer to Bartley MRT but carries a 99-year leasehold caveat and a ~30-year lease remaining at time of a typical 10-year-hold exit. Llyn Gardens’ freehold title removes lease decay entirely — a structural advantage that grows more significant over time and is the primary reason the landed freehold-versus-leasehold spread in Singapore has historically been so durable.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LLYN GARDENS | Freehold | 1991 | 41 | $1,909 |
| CHUAN PARK | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2024 | 2024 | 916 | $2,596 |
| THE FLORENCE RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,410 | $1,745 |
| RIVERFRONT RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,451 | $1,588 |
| AFFINITY AT SERANGOON | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 1,012 | $1,698 |
| SERANGOON GARDEN ESTATE | Freehold | 2021 | — | $1,736 |
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates LLYN GARDENS across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“The quiet of the street is what you can’t replicate anywhere nearby. Paya Lebar Walk is a dead-end — no through traffic, no strangers cutting through. The kids can play on the driveway, and both Bartley and Serangoon MRT are genuinely walkable. We looked at Serangoon Gardens but this was closer to the school and gave us dual MRT without paying Serangoon Gardens pricing.”
— Owner-occupier family on the cul-de-sac character and dual-MRT positioning via PropertyGuru project page community
“PLMG Primary is literally a 5-minute walk from the front gate. We were chasing the Phase 2A alumni angle and this address is one of the few landed options genuinely within 1 km. The unit needed renovation but the school access was the whole point. Four years in, we’d buy it again.”
— P1-balloting parent on PLMG (Primary) school proximity via EdgeProp community comments
“Corner terrace at Llyn Gardens is genuinely special — 4,900-odd sqft of land, sky terrace on the third floor, you can see the Bartley Viaduct from up there. The en-bloc talk has been around for years. I don’t buy for en-bloc, but it adds an optionality layer that a leasehold condo can’t give you.”
— Corner-terrace owner on the freehold optionality and en-bloc dimension via PropertyVow community discussion
“Yield is genuinely low — we get S$4,800 for a 2,500 sqft 4-bedder, which on a S$4M+ asset is not a yield story. We own this for the land, the freehold, and the fact that Keppel Land built it properly. NEX is 12 minutes’ walk, Bartley MRT is 10. The tenant we have is a family with kids at Zhonghua Primary. That’s the rental market here.”
— Owner-investor on yield profile and rental tenant demographics via Squarefoot Research community
Community sentiment across available forums and listings is consistently positive on location and lot character, and pragmatic on yield. The recurring narrative is a school-driven family purchase — PLMG (Primary), Zhonghua, or Cedar Girls’ — combined with appreciation of the dual-MRT rarity for a landed address and tolerance of the 1.4% gross yield as the price of freehold land ownership. En-bloc discussion appears periodically but is not a dominant theme; most owners appear to be long-term hold owner-occupiers or investor-landlords with school-family tenants, rather than en-bloc-oriented speculators.
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Freehold individual land title — no lease decay, renovation freedom, multi-generational retention with no MCST restrictions on external works
- Dual-MRT within 1 km — Bartley CCL (0.70 km, ~9 min walk) + Serangoon CCL/NEL interchange (0.82 km, ~11 min walk) — rare for D19 landed stock
- PLMG Primary 0.43 km — one of Singapore's most popular all-girls mission schools, Phase 2A alumni feeder advantage
- Deep school cluster: Zhonghua Sec (0.64 km), Zhonghua Pri (0.71 km), Bartley Sec (0.85 km), Cedar Girls' Sec (0.91 km), Cedar Pri (0.99 km)
- Keppel Land (Mansfield Developments) developer pedigree — 1991 build quality consistent with the group's landed estate track record
- Quiet cul-de-sac address: no through traffic, entirely residential street, low-rise surroundings preserve privacy and streetscape
- NEX + Serangoon interchange 0.82 km — full retail, F&B, cinema, and bus interchange within easy walking distance
- En-bloc score 56/100 — above average collective sale potential for a 35-year-old 41-unit estate on dual-MRT freehold land
- Established rental demand: 13 rental records, median S$4,800/month — family rental market driven by school catchment proximity
- Gross yield ~1.41% — characteristic of freehold landed but among the lowest on the ShiokNest platform; not an income-yield investment
- Absolute entry price: intermediate terraces S$3.5M+, corner terraces S$5M+ — materially above D19 condominium alternatives
- No shared facilities — no swimming pool, gymnasium, or clubhouse; leisure infrastructure relies entirely on external venues (Serangoon Swimming Complex, NEX, etc.)
- Thin transaction dataset: 7 resale records, 13 rental records — price discovery relies on listings triangulation and independent valuation rather than deep comparable history
- PSF anomaly in dataset: yr0 = S$837 psf likely a large-land-area or older outlier — do not use as a price anchor; use S$1,882–$2,626 psf (built-up) for current benchmarking
- 1991 vintage: units require renovation budget (S$80,000–$200,000 depending on scope) before reaching contemporary rental or resale market expectations
- Investment score 37/100 — compressed yield and thin data history reduce short-term investment case for non-landed specialists
- Walkability 65/100 — solid by landed standards but food and daily retail requires a walk to Serangoon or Kovan; no hawker within immediate streetscape
- No MCST — estate maintenance managed informally by owners' committee; quality depends on collective owner engagement rather than professional management
Verdict
Llyn Gardens makes a coherent case for a specific buyer profile: the family seeking freehold landed living in D19 with above-average dual-MRT access, a deep school belt anchored by PLMG (Primary) and Zhonghua Primary within 0.71 km, and the long-run capital security of a Keppel Land pedigree estate on individually titled freehold land. For that buyer, the comparison set is not Chuan Park or Affinity at Serangoon — it is other D19 freehold landed estates (Serangoon Gardens, the Lorong Chuan landed cluster, Kovan Road terraces) — and in that peer group, the dual-station proximity and school depth of Paya Lebar Walk are competitive advantages.
The en-bloc score of 56/100 — above average for a 35-year-old estate — adds a speculative dimension that should be acknowledged but not overweighted. The 41-unit scale is compact enough to be interesting to developers seeking a landed-to-high-density redevelopment plot, the freehold tenure eliminates the lease-clock urgency that drives many en-bloc campaigns, and the Bartley–Serangoon dual-MRT proximity would attract developer interest for a mid-rise or high-rise replacement. That said, freehold landed en-bloc campaigns require a supermajority of owners to agree to sell their privately titled homes, which is historically difficult. The en-bloc angle is a tail option, not a base case.
The case for caution is limited but real. The gross yield of 1.41% is among the lower figures in the ShiokNest database, consistent with Singapore’s landed premium but a meaningful yield sacrifice for buyers whose underwriting requires income support. The investment score of 37/100 reflects this compressed yield alongside a thin transaction dataset that limits price-discovery confidence. The walkability score of 65/100 is solid for landed stock — the dual MRT proximity inflates this above most comparable estates — but Paya Lebar Walk is not a hawker-and-kopitiam street; day-to-day food and convenience requires either a short walk to Serangoon or a drive.
Against freehold condominium alternatives at D19 price points — Chuan Park (99yr, S$2,596 psf), Affinity at Serangoon (99yr, S$1,698 psf) — Llyn Gardens offers the full landed ownership proposition: private land title, renovation freedom, no MCST constraints, multi-generational home configuration, and the social cachet that Singapore landed addresses carry. At S$1,909 psf on built-up for an intermediate terrace, and S$2,626 psf for the best corner units, the freehold landed premium over 99-year condominium stock in the same district is rational and well-supported by the capital market. The ShiokNest composite score of 33/100 is weighted down by thin data and low yield; the asset fundamentals for the right buyer are meaningfully stronger than that number implies.