Architect Andrew Tan, who submitted his concept drawing to a contest by the Ministry of National Development.
HOME-BUYERS like The Ambience. There's the resort-style atmosphere spread over about 20,000 sq ft of land, the 80m-long pool and a gym.
PERFECT AMBIENCE: Buyers were tempted by this image that was part of the ad for The Ambience in last week's The Sunday Times. -- PHOTO: D2B DEVELOPERThe fittingly-named The Ambience in Punggol Seventeenth Avenue is the latest cluster housing development to hit the market, and response has been good since its launch last Saturday.
Five of the 11 two-storey detached units, each between about 3,600 sq ft and 4,500 sq ft, were sold by last Thursday, says Mr Dennis Leong, CEO of the developer DB2.
Units are going for $630 psf, which means one of the smaller units would be priced at about $2.38 million.
Cluster housing units in more central areas have also been snapped up.
For example, MCL Land launched Hillcrest Villa in Dunearn Road last month. It consists of 163 units, each about 3,100 sq ft in size and priced between $2.5 million and $3 million. All, save for the showflat, were sold within two weeks.
Mr Leong is happy with his slice of the action in the suburbs, declaring: 'For the price and location, getting just a swimming pool is already considered very value-for-money. People are aware that land is getting increasingly scarce.'
It's the positive response towards these developments that keeps small-scale developers like two-year-old DB2 in the business, he says.
In fact, a considerable proportion of cluster housing projects are from smaller developers.
The 28-unit Gilstead Brooks in Gilstead Road was developed by niche property developer Sin Heng Chan, while the 25-unit Gardens At Gerald in Seletar Hills was developed by Oaktree Land.
Both made the news when they were launched in 2002 and 2005 respectively, for selling out quickly.
'Bigger developers usually go for bigger pieces of land on which they can build more houses and reap more profits,' Mr Leong says.
DB2's current portfolio consists entirely of cluster houses: Besides The Ambience, it is behind the eight-unit Centurion 12 in Brighthill Crescent and another in Bukit Teresa which is 'in the works'.
Expat kampung in Sixth Avenue
COME dusk, the Honore brothers - Matthias, three, and Lucas, two, - can often be seen dipping their toes into the pebble-strewn pond in the main foyer of The Teneriffe.
AT HOME: The Honores - Cindy and Oliver with their sons Matthias and Lucas - are happy in The Teneriffe. -- ST PHOTO: DESMOND FOOThis is the Sixth Avenue cluster housing estate where they live with their French father Olivier, 40, and Chinese Singaporean mother Cindy, 30.
Around them, other children of mixed or Caucasian heritage run around while adults standing close by chat away.
This congregation of multi-nationals in a 'resort like' environment is what Mr Honore, an engineer who is a permanent resident here, likes most about his estate.
'My Swiss neighbour and I've been talking a lot to the new French family that has just moved in,' he says. 'The spirit of community is really there.'
Mr Eddie Koh, a Knight Frank realty adviser who has sold or rented out over 10 units at The Teneriffe in the past six months, says over 80 per cent of the estate's residents are expatriate tenants.
Monthly rental rates at The Teneriffe are currently between $12,000 and $13,500.
The Honores moved from a four-bedroom Upper Bukit Timah condominium to join the Teneriffe community in May 2005.
Finding the ideal home was not an easy task.
'We had looked at condominiums but the price was too high then,' Mr Honore says.
His wife says that they looked at other cluster houses like Binjai Crest and another one in Upper Bukit Timah, but the rooms were too small or the place too noisy.
But the 'half-open, half-closed' design of The Teneriffe won them over.
The main entrance of each house is flanked by a private, open-air terrace, which means that even with the doors open, privacy is still respected, Mr Honore says.
Neighbourly socialising revolves mainly around the kids. 'We've made friends here because the children are always running around or having parties and that brings the parents together,' Mrs Honore says.
And when you're feeling anti-social, you can simply stay at home, he adds.
Asked if the family would consider moving, he says with a laugh that only if his 3,200 sq ft home, which is spread over four storeys, can fetch a price of $3.5 million.
The current price for a unit of that size at The Teneriffe is about $3 million, Mr Koh says.
Mr Honore adds: 'The lifestyle in a cluster housing estate is very interesting. Everything is self contained - from the carpark to where you throw your garbage. Even the gym. You never need to do any fitness because every day, you're already climbing a lot of steps in your own home.'
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