JARDIN (Review)

District: 21
Location: Bukit Timah
Address: 966 Dunearn Road
Developer: Far East Organization
Tenure: Freehold


Tranquillity Awaits -

My garden home in the sky, a lush stroke of green across the blue.

Drudgery of the day behind me, hubbub of the city hushed.

A sweet respite, my senses awake.

No, the wife and I are no closet poets. But those who are can certainly take a leaf off JARDIN’S marketing brochure.


JARDIN is another of them “older” new development that the wife and I decided to take a chance on today. First launched in July-2007, JARDIN sits on a long and somewhat narrow plot of land of about 90,000sqft, and consists of one 10-storey block with 140 units. The expected TOP for this project is 2013.


The main entrance into JARDIN is along Dunearn Road, right next to the Dunearn/Clementi Road intersection. The sales gallery is located at the actual site itself.


The unique selling point of JARDIN is that the project is made up of largely loft units – 90 of the 140 apartment are Lofts. And while most other condo developments (e.g. Cyan) only have 1 or 2-bedroom lofts, JARDIN offers much bigger loft units with 3+1 and even 4+1 bedrooms.


The other unique feature of JARDIN is the French-themed garden terraces at alternate levels along the Loft corridors. These gardens extend from the loft units, merging living spaces with nature. An ideal spot for quiet reflections and parties, these gardens at the doorsteps offer the prefect combination of garden-living in high-rise environment.


The facilities in JARDIN centre within the ‘pavilion-style’ roof-top club - The Garden of Pleasures – which offers recreational facilities such as an infinity pool, aqua gym, reading pavilion, alfresco café, function pavilion and the elemental spa. However, tennis enthusiasts will be disappointed to know that there is no tennis court in this project. And for those who seeks a pool-facing view, you will have to be contented with the view of the swimming pools at “Gardenvista” (the condo next door) that JARDIN overlooks. We understand that there will only be 145 carpark lots available in 2 basement levels, so parking is likely to be a contentious issue in future estate AGMs.


There are quite a number of unit types available at JARDIN, depending on whether you are looking for single- level apartment or Loft


• 2-Bedrooms Apt: 958sqft & 1098sqft*
• 2+1 Bedrooms Apt: 1087sqft & 1098sqft, 1249sqft* & 1259sqft*
• 3-Bedrooms Apt: 1206sqft & 1292sqft*
• 1-Bedroom Loft: 958sqft & 990sqft*
• 2-Bedrooms Loft: 1012sqft & 1130sqft*
• 2+1 Bedrooms Loft: 1098 – 1163sqft & 1216* – 1249sqft*
• 3+1 Bedrooms Loft: 1690 – 1722sqft & 1776* - 1787sqft*
• 4+1 Bedrooms Loft: 1776 – 1787sqft & 1851* - 1862sqft*
 * denotes ground-floor unit type


There are 2 showflats within the sales gallery. The first is a 1851sqft, 4+1 bedrooms, ground-floor loft unit. It comes with a private lift that opens directly to your living/dining room in the lower level. The living/dining room has 60cm X 60cm marble-slabs flooring, and the general ceiling height for the lower level is 3.45m. However, one section of the living room underneath the void area actually has the fully extended height of 6.6m. You also find one of the three common bedrooms in this level, next to the home shelter/maid’s room. There is only one bathroom/toilet in the lower level for sharing between your guests, the maid and occupant of the bedroom. The yard cum launderette is lodged between the bedroom and kitchen, and is accessible via a door within the bedroom or from the kitchen. At the yard, a back door will provide you access to the garden terrace outside. The dry and wet kitchens are arranged in a row next to each other, and come with full length kitchen cabinets. The developer is surprisingly stingy with kitchen appliances, with only “Kuppersbusch” hood/hob & oven provided for the unit.


A staircase in the living/dining area (next to the private lift doors) leads you to the upper level, with an in-built storage provided on the mid-level stairs landing. You have the option of a marbled staircase with stainless steel railings, i.e. an extension from the marble flooring in the living/dining room, or the conventional wooden staircase with matching stairs railings. As you come up the stairs, the master bedroom and study are on opposite side to the two other common bedrooms. One of the common bedrooms is squarish and decent sized, while the other is L-shaped. Both bedrooms share a single bathroom/toilet located in between the rooms.


Both the master bedroom and bathroom are good sized. A set of L-shaped windows in the master bedroom allow you to overlook part of the living room below, as well as view of the pool area of “Gardenvista” located directly opposite the unit. The master bathroom has a sunken bath with rain-shower, and you can choose to have the partition walls between the master bedroom and bathroom either in concrete or glass. You can also choose to convert the study next door to a walk-in closet.


The other showflat is a 1098sqft, 2-bedrooms ground-floor apartment. There is no private lift access for the apartment stacks – the main door opens into the rectangular shaped living/dining room. You get 60cm X 30cm marble-slabs flooring, and the ceiling height is about 3.3m. The kitchen is also rectangular in shape, with the home shelter/maid’s room located within the kitchen itself. There is a small L-shaped yard behind the kitchen, but no toilet/bath. The bedrooms and common toilet/bath are tucked to one side of the apartment. The common bedroom is (you guessed it) rectangular shaped, while the master bedroom across is squarish and has a small walk-in closet that leads to the master bathroom.


What we like:
• The larger loft units, i.e. the 3+1 and 4+1 bedders. JARDIN is the only development we have seen so far that offers units of such sizes.


• All the living areas within the 2-bedrooms apartment are very regular with no odd corners. The showflat actually felt surprisingly spacious for an apartment with a “built-in” area of only 960sqft, since the other 150sqft is taken up by the PES.


• JARDIN is quite centrally located – there are numerous restaurants sprawled across the area and nearby shopping malls, such as Bukit Timah Plaza and King Albert Park, provide a range of amenities including supermarkets and retail shops. It only takes about 15 – 20 minutes by car to get to the CBD or Orchard Road shopping district, via AYE and Dunearn Road respectively. The upcoming Blackmore MRT station is located almost right across the road from JARDIN.


What we dislike:
• The common toilet on the lower level of the 4+1 Loft is located in the centre of the unit. Such layout, in “Feng Shui” speak, will result in all your wealth being flushed away. The wife and I are also no fans of fully enclosed toilet without natural ventilation.


• The position of the home shelter, which usually serves as the maid’s room, in the living/dining room area of the 4+1 Loft is not exactly ideal. The domestic helper will have to access the yard area through the bedroom on the lower level, or take a roundabout route across the kitchen. It also gives her far less privacy than the traditional “home shelter in the yard area” layout. One option is to use the bedroom in the lower level as the maid’s room, which we suspect is something many buyers with domestic helper may end up doing.


• There is insufficient bathroom at the lower Loft level. We will much prefer an additional toilet/bath in the yard area for the domestic helper.


• Although JARDIN is built with a 44-metres ingress from the main road, this may not necessarily be sufficient insulation from traffic noises along Dunearn Road and the busy intersection that the development is situated next to. So you will either have to bear the brunt of the noise pollution, or have your windows permanently shut.


• There is not much ground within JARDIN, given the long and narrow strip of land it resides on. And the wife and I are not particularly thrilled about having to depend on your neighbour’s pool and grounds for a view, no matter how much the marketing brochure tries to convince us that this is actually a Japanese gardening technique of Shakkei (borrowed scenery), which supposedly extends the garden experience of JARDIN beyond its development.


• For parents that have kids enrolling into primary school in the next couple of years, we can only identify one school that is within 1-km of JARDIN – Methodist Girls’ Primary School.


In summary, the wife and I have concluded that JARDIN is not really for us - assuming we have the money to buy it that is - as the cons far outweigh the pros. And in our case, there is really only one “pro” - we love the Loft unit!


For those of you who are interested in JARDIN, please note that only the apartment units are currently released for sale. Far East has suspended marketing of the Loft units after the initial launch – these were units on the first and third storey, of which 60% were sold. The reason for the suspension, as we understand it, is due to public resistance to the price. The 3+1 and 4+1 Lofts were supposedly transacted at $1900-$2,000psf previously, before sales were put on hold. But the marketing agent that was attending to us did say that she is willing to seek developer’s approval if we are really interested in the Loft units on the first or third floor, and are willing to pay at least $1800psf for the 3+1 Loft or $1900psf for the 4+1 Loft.


And as for the apartments, only units from 1st – 4th floors are launched, and the take up rate has supposedly hit 70%. The selling price for apartments is also lower – from $1500psf up.


View Site and Floor Plans here:  
http://s942.photobucket.com/albums/ad265/proptalk/Jardin/