Vaughan Garden
Overview & Key Facts
Vaughan Garden is a freehold landed estate spread across 69 homes on Bukit Arang Road in District 13 — a quiet residential enclave tucked between the Serangoon MRT interchange and the low-rise Lorong Biawak corridor. The estate offers a mix of terrace houses (1,815–4,045 sqft) and semi-detached homes (5,647–6,647 sqft), all held on freehold title — a relative rarity in a district where the majority of nearby private residential stock is 99-year leasehold new-launch condominiums.
What sets Vaughan Garden apart is not its scale or developer pedigree — the estate has no single developer, and transaction volume is thin, with only around ten sales caveats on record — but its geography. Serangoon MRT, a dual-line interchange serving both the North-East Line and the Circle Line, sits approximately 430 metres from the estate entrance. That proximity is near-doorstep by Singapore landed standards, where a 1.0–1.5 km walk to the nearest station is typical. The NEX shopping mall, one of Singapore’s largest suburban malls with over 340 outlets, is physically integrated with Serangoon MRT — effectively placing residents within a 5–7 minute walk of a full-service retail and F&B hub.
Buyers looking at Vaughan Garden fall into two broad camps: families seeking a forever freehold landed home with outstanding MRT connectivity in a mature estate, and investors drawn to the 97.2% Singaporean buyer profile and the long-term capital preservation characteristics of freehold landed in the OCR. Either way, the estate trades on location rather than facilities or prestige — a trade-off that suits its buyers well.
Location & Connectivity
Bukit Arang Road occupies a distinctive pocket in the Serangoon landscape: bounded loosely by Upper Serangoon Road to the south-east, Lorong Biawak to the north-west, and the Serangoon MRT interchange corridor to the south. From the estate, the walk to Serangoon MRT (North-East Line & Circle Line) is approximately 430 metres — roughly 5–6 minutes on foot. This is an exceptional connectivity profile for a landed estate anywhere in Singapore, and almost certainly the single strongest selling point of the address.
Immediately adjacent to Serangoon MRT is NEX shopping mall, the largest suburban mall in Singapore’s north-east. With over 340 brand outlets across seven levels — including a FairPrice Xtra hypermarket, cineplex, food court, Serangoon Public Library, and childcare facilities — NEX functions as a self-contained town centre. For Vaughan Garden residents, the walk to NEX takes approximately 7–9 minutes from the estate. Serangoon Bus Interchange, co-located with the MRT and NEX, adds comprehensive bus connectivity across the north-east.
Beyond the MRT-and-mall anchor, the Serangoon neighbourhood delivers strong daily-living infrastructure. The Serangoon Swimming Complex and sports facilities are within 1.0 km. The New Upper Changi Road hawker centres, Heartland Mall (Kovan), and the Serangoon Gardens Estate food cluster are all accessible within 10–15 minutes by car or MRT. For schools, Cedar Girls’ Secondary (1.07 km) and Cedar Primary School (1.12 km) are the headline anchors, with Bartley Secondary School at 0.97 km. Serangoon Secondary School at 1.34 km rounds out a credible cluster for families with children across primary and secondary levels.
For drivers, the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) is accessible within 5 minutes, and the Central Expressway (CTE) approach from Braddell Road is roughly 8 minutes away. Orchard Road is approximately 20 minutes in off-peak conditions; the CBD via CTE is around 18–22 minutes.
Schools & Education
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Bartley Secondary School | secondary | Within 1 km |
| Cedar Girls' Secondary School | secondary | ~1.1 km |
| Cedar Primary School | primary | ~1.1 km |
| Serangoon Secondary School | secondary | ~1.3 km |
| Zhonghua Secondary School | secondary | ~1.5 km |
| Red Swastika School | primary | ~1.6 km |
| Assumption Pathway School | secondary | ~1.6 km |
| Stamford Primary School | primary | ~1.6 km |
Facilities
Vaughan Garden is a landed estate, not a gated condominium development. There are no shared facilities — no pool, gymnasium, clubhouse, or managed landscaping beyond the roads and green verges within the estate. Each home on Bukit Arang Road sits on its own freehold plot, with outdoor space, parking, and upkeep managed entirely by the individual owner. Maintenance fees are non-existent in the condominium sense; owners instead budget for their own property upkeep, gardening, and home management.
“We looked at condos in the area but once we realised we could get a freehold terrace this close to Serangoon MRT, the calculus changed completely. We do not miss the condo pool — NEX is five minutes’ walk and there’s a public pool nearby. The tradeoff feels entirely worth it.”
— Landed homeowner perspective on freehold Serangoon estate living, via Stacked Homes community discussion
For buyers accustomed to condo living, the absence of shared facilities is offset by the NEX-and-Serangoon Hub infrastructure within a 10-minute walk: the library, ActiveSG gym and swimming complex, supermarket, and extensive F&B options all sit within the same MRT-adjacent cluster. The Serangoon Sports Hub (tennis courts, football pitches) is approximately 1.0 km from the estate. Families with children benefit from nearby playground facilities at Bukit Arang Park, a small linear park along the estate perimeter. For buyers who have actively chosen landed over condominium living, the lack of shared-facility overhead is a feature rather than a drawback.
Unit Sizes & Layout
Vaughan Garden’s 69 homes span two principal unit types. Terrace houses range from approximately 1,815 to 4,045 sqft of built floor area, with recent transactions recording prices between S$3.25M and S$6.68M. Semi-detached homes are substantially larger — floor areas of roughly 5,647 to 6,647 sqft — and have transacted around S$5.3M to S$6.3M. Both types sit on individual freehold plots, with land area varying by position within the estate. Outdoor space, covered car parking within the plot, and the capacity to extend or rebuild (subject to URA guidelines and existing building setbacks) are standard features of landed ownership at Vaughan Garden.
The most recent transaction on record (March 2026) was a terrace house at S$6.28M — the highest recorded in the estate and consistent with broader freehold landed appreciation across the D13 Serangoon belt since 2020. The estate’s 97.2% Singaporean buyer profile reflects the regulatory reality that foreign nationals cannot purchase landed residential property in Singapore (except on Sentosa Cove), making Vaughan Garden’s buyer pool a domestic market with no offshore liquidity constraints.
| Bedrooms | Transactions | Avg PSF | Avg Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 BR | 1 | $1,939 | $3,518,000 |
| 5 BR | 9 | $1,537 | $5,316,444 |
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 10 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $3,250,000 to $6,680,000, averaging $5,136,600 (~$2,150 psf).
Rents range from $4,000 to $11,000 per month across 7 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 1.5%.
Price Appreciation
From 2021 to 2026, the average PSF has appreciated by 123.9% (from $1,174 to $2,628 psf).
Neighbourhood Comparison
Vaughan Garden’s natural comparison set is not the surrounding 99-year leasehold condominiums — which operate in a fundamentally different ownership category — but rather nearby freehold and 99-year landed stock. The Woodleigh Residences (S$2,229 psf, 99yr, near Woodleigh MRT) and Park Colonial (S$2,142 psf, 99yr, near Serangoon MRT) represent the leasehold mid-market at a fraction of Vaughan Garden’s absolute price, but they are apartments, not landed homes. Among landed comparables in D13 and adjacent D19, freehold terrace houses near Serangoon MRT are scarce. The alternative freehold landed corridors — Braddell Heights, Thomson Rise, Bartley Road — are established but typically more than 1.2 km from the nearest MRT station. Vaughan Garden’s 430-metre walk to Serangoon CCL/NEL interchange is the differentiating factor that most landed buyers in the OCR would gladly pay a meaningful premium to access.
Against The Tre Ver (S$1,919 psf, 99yr, along Potong Pasir) and Bartley Ridge (S$1,703 psf, 99yr, near Bartley CCL), Vaughan Garden again occupies a different ownership category. For buyers with a S$5M–6M budget who are genuinely choosing between a large 99-year leasehold condominium and a freehold terrace house near a dual-line MRT, Vaughan Garden consistently wins on tenure quality and neighbourhood character — and the surrounding condominium price benchmarks validate that the landed premium is real and market-supported.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VAUGHAN GARDEN | Freehold | — | — | $2,150 |
| THE WOODLEIGH RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2017 | 2021 | 667 | $2,229 |
| THE TRE VER | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 729 | $1,919 |
| BARTLEY RIDGE | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2012 | 2018 | 868 | $1,703 |
| PARK COLONIAL | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2017 | 2021 | 805 | $2,142 |
| THE POIZ RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2014 | 2019 | 731 | $1,867 |
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates VAUGHAN GARDEN across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
“Bukit Arang Road is genuinely quiet — you would not know you are seven minutes’ walk from Serangoon MRT. The kids take the MRT to school by themselves and we drive to the PIE for everything else. The NEX is where we do most of our weekend shopping. Could not imagine going back to condo living after this.”
— Terrace house owner on Bukit Arang Road, via PropertyGuru community discussion
“The estate is small enough that everyone knows each other, but the location is urban enough that you never feel isolated. Serangoon Hub and NEX are a short walk, Serangoon Gardens is 10 minutes by car. For a freehold landed home, the connectivity here is exceptional — we looked at Braddell and Thomson before settling on Bukit Arang Road.”
— Semi-detached homeowner perspective via Stacked Homes landed estate guide
“Cedar Girls’ is under 15 minutes on foot from our gate. My daughter walks to school with friends from the same estate. The whole reason we bought here was the school corridor and the Serangoon MRT. The freehold title was the clincher — we intend to hold this for the next generation.”
— Parent-owner on school proximity and generational holding intent, via EdgeProp landed estate community
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Freehold title on all 69 homes — permanent ownership, no lease-decay, generational hold capability
- Serangoon MRT (CCL/NEL dual-line interchange) at 430m — near-doorstep for landed standards
- Dual-line redundancy: Circle Line and North-East Line from one interchange within walking distance
- NEX mall (340+ outlets, FairPrice Xtra, cinema, library) ~7–9 minute walk from estate
- Walkability 70/100 — strong for landed; Serangoon Hub, hawker centres, and bus interchange all within 15 minutes on foot
- Cedar Girls' Secondary (1.07 km) and Cedar Primary (1.12 km) — credible school catchment for balloting
- 97.2% Singaporean buyer profile — pure domestic demand, not reliant on foreign purchasing eligibility
- No shared-facility maintenance fees — owner controls own property costs and upkeep schedule
- Capacity to extend or rebuild subject to URA guidelines — typical landed redevelopment optionality
- Quiet, low-rise estate character despite central location — few landed addresses in OCR offer this combination
- Very thin transaction record (~10 caveats) — pricing underwriting requires independent valuation and current-market asking-price research
- PSF averages are unreliable across a small, heterogeneous unit mix — terrace and semi-D PSF figures are not comparable
- No shared facilities — no pool, gymnasium, or clubhouse; all recreational amenities are public or off-site
- Gross yield ~1.45% — low rental returns typical of premium freehold landed; not an income-optimisation asset
- En-bloc probability 17/100 — individual freehold titles with diverse ownership make collective sale effectively impossible
- Investment score 61/100 — moderate; landed capital appreciation is uneven and depends heavily on plot size, position, and macro landed market cycles
- Landed ownership obligations — roof, structure, exterior, and landscaping maintenance are owner's full responsibility, unlike a strata-managed condo
- Foreign nationals ineligible — restricts buyer pool to Singaporeans, Singapore PRs, and approved foreign nationals only
Verdict
Vaughan Garden is one of Singapore’s better-kept landed secrets — not in the sense of being undervalued, but in the sense that the address is rarely discussed alongside the district’s better-known landed corridors (Braddell, Thomson, Upper Serangoon Road). For a buyer seeking freehold landed ownership, dual-line MRT at near-doorstep distance, access to a full-service suburban mall, and an established low-rise neighbourhood character, it is genuinely difficult to identify a comparable alternative at a comparable price point in the OCR.
The caveats are clear. Thin transaction volume across 10 historical caveats means buyers must do their own pricing work — asking-price triangulation, independent valuation, and careful analysis of the specific unit size and plot position are all necessary before any offer. The gross yield of 1.45% is modest, as expected for premium freehold landed — this is an asset held for capital appreciation and own-stay quality of life, not rental income optimisation. The en-bloc probability of 17/100 is effectively zero, which is correct for an estate of individual freehold titles with diverse ownership; it should not be read as a negative.
The ShiokNest investment score of 61/100 and composite score of 36/100 reflect the landed context accurately: strong MRT (9.5/10) and lease (10.0/10) ratings anchor the profile, while the facilities score (3.5/10) correctly reflects the absence of shared amenities. For the buyer who wants freehold landed within walking distance of a dual-line MRT interchange — rather than a condominium with a pool — Vaughan Garden represents a compelling case.