Zhang ShiHua 张世华: Special Photo Review: Sentosa Property Guide

Special Photo Review: Sentosa Property Guide

Special Photo Review: Sentosa Property Guide Part 1
To many, Sentosa is an island resort with picture perfect artificial beaches to get your tan done, and perhaps home to a giant merlion with laser eyes. To but a few who have truly arrived, it is a place called home – complete with a casual assortment of Aston Martins, Bentleys, Rolls Royce and typical multimillion dollar yachts parked at doorsteps.

Sentosa property is still an enigma to many, even though it has been around for about 6 years. To the uninitiated, residential parcels are located exclusively on the eastern part of the Sentosa Island -stretching from the north eastern point (still facing the container ports) to the southern tip. The fine beaches of Sentosa is located along the southern points, and the Integrated Resort (read: casino) is at the northern most point where the arrival ferry terminal used to be.

For residents of Sentosa, one has to cross the causeway and then keep left towards Dolphin Lagoon. A guard post will greet them as they enter their accolade, at the same time ushering away lost tourists and nosey locals. Immediately the exclusive One Degree 15 Marina is located east of the large roundabout. Turn left and you head towards the Northern cove, turn right and you will be greeted by plenty of construction on the Southern cove.

The Northern Cove is much more established, being launched as early as 2004. The Southern Cove though was introduced later, some as recent as during the property Bull Run in mid 2007. In this two part special, we will cover the northern cove today.

Condominiums
The northern cove is distinguished by four condominiums –The Oceanfront, The Coast, The Berthand The Azure (refer to map below). These condominiums are developed by large developers and typically offer great sea views. Large balconies are typical and with exception to The Oceanfront, the condominiums are actually boring architecturally. An interesting fact is that despite being a condominium, these projects still conform to the “no fence” rule of Sentosa Property. No fences are allowed, between any houses – regardless of type. This is to keep in line with the free flowing resort theme. So as long as someone manages to get past the security post (rangers they are called on this island) they can technically dive into your condo’s pool. Note however the rangers on Sentosa are very sharp, and not to be trifled with.

Developer Landed Houses
There are also three mini-islands within the enclave - Treasure Island, Paradise Island, and Island Coral Island (from south to north). These are landed bungalows or terraces exclusively designed and built by a single developer. Usually the theme is fixed, and houses are uniform in design. The islands are accessible through charming bridges connecting to the main island. Developers also have access to other portions of land highlighted in blue above. Some of these landed compounds have individual guard posts to restrict strangers from driving their vehicles in.

Individually Developed Landed Houses
The larger part of the Northern cove is occupied by individually owned and developed plots of land (highlighted yellow in the map). Basically buyers purchase the land, and build whatever they want, perhaps limited only by thresholds of genius or poor taste (see photos 13-25 below). For those who don’t want to wake up one day to find a particularly offending structure in front of your home, perhaps the developer led projects mentioned above are safer. All land on Sentosa are 99yr leasehold and will eventually expire. Note that the “no fence” policy also applies to landed housing, although some smart residents circumnavigate the issue with “natural barriers”.

A large number of individually owned and built landed houses front the northern coast, facing the port skyline – not entirely an attractive sight. The alternative would be to get an “inland” unit, but still connected to the waterway to park your boat.

While we were there, we noticed some individually owned land lying fallow…a sign of the times…and a clear signal for vultures to swoop in!

Here are some pictures we took during our trip, you can refer to the location of where the photos were taken via the map above/or below:

1. How about waking up and walking a hundred meters to the golf course on Sentosa?

2. Guard posts like these are found in the residential sector of Sentosa – to keep the Aston Martins in and gatecrashers out.

3. Treasure Island, still being exclusively designed and built by a single developer.

4. Paradise Island, already developed can be found across the waterway – note the uniform look of all the bungalows with berths to park your boat.

5. The Oceanfront (middle) and The Coast (left) from a distance.

6. The unique Oceanfront from up close, note the large balconies. This condominium has perhaps the best view and highest elevation of all the four condominiums on the northern cove.